Posted by Peter H on December 20, 2000 at 16:42:45 from 62.7.108.83:
In Reply to: Re: Roger's New One posted by Martin Affleck on December 20, 2000 at 10:31:08:
I get an entirely different impression of Evgenia. She comes over to me as moody, but at times very jolly and capable - very Russian, in fact. Her criticism may seem to us over-harsh, but perhaps this was the fire in which AR forged his stories, in other words in trying to please her he approached perfection, whereas without her he might have been satisfied with slightly less. I don't know, and I can't prove this, but that's what I feel.
I certainly agree with Martin that Evgenia, as an undoubted influence on AR's writing, is fair game for detailed research. As an example of what is not fair game, at one of the early Lit Weekends someone put forward the idea (whether real or hypothetical I can't remember - does anyone recall?) of finding some correspondence addressed by AR in his youth to a female recipient. Should we investigate, and should the letters be published? The feeling of the gathering, as I remember it, was definitely against. There are surely some areas of Ransome's life that we should leave alone. (I admit that this does not fit in with the 'reveal all' school of modern biography, but I think it's only right.)