Posted by Dave Thewlis on October 12, 2000 at 17:41:39 from adsl-63-200-128-218.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net:
In Reply to: More Ransome "Oddities" posted by Adam Quinan on October 07, 2000 at 13:28:30:
Seems to me there are other possibilities to the "great birthday mystery". The first and most obvious
is that Ransome wanted a device to allow him to identify when the children's birthdays were, or at leat
approximately, perhaps for some postulated future episode he later decided not to write. Regardless, I don't
think that one needs to refine too much on whether the children really knew their own birthdays.
The more interesting speculation for me has always been the Birthday Party itself, for Vicky, who is two.
In subsequent books we find out that Vicky was really Brigit, but called Vicky when very young because she
looked like Queen Victoria in old age (as I recall). But the birthday cake in S&A has the name "Victoria"
in pick icing between two cherries. It seems likely to me that Ransome originally meant her name to be
Vicky and subsequently decided to rename her to (close to) the real Bridget by the time he wrote Swallowdale.