(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

Would you describe the world of Swallows and Amazons as beautiful and rather silly? Because I wouldn't, even in the service of working in background information about the author, Neil Hannon (who has described cricket thus).

And if Nancy is suggesting a future Scout leader, something has gone terribly wrong...

Comments

[legionseagle]

"slightly twee excesses"....????? That probably put a dent in the world's WTF reserves that you could see from space.

[oursin]

You beat me to it!

[caulkhead]

Even if I agreed with the starting premise, which I don't, I don't see how setting the whole thing in an attic, and adding an additional layer of make-believe on top could make anything less twee.

[serriadh]

They pretend a feather duster is a parrot. It is the most twee thing I've ever seen.

[zeborah]

They what? No. Why would you do that? No!

When I was a child I spent a summer on a make-believe game inspired by that book; the old ladies who lived next door kindly played along. I wrote stories inspired by it. It taught me about north-by-northeast and damping a fire (albeit in a way I expect I'd stuff up if I ever tried in practice) and leading lights. Titty was my hero. I read all the sequels though none were quite as good and I didn't keep them. In our recent earthquake it was my only damaged book because the glue was old and brittle and all the pages fell out in the mess; so of course I now have a beautiful new copy. And someone wants to go and put it in an attic? Were they perhaps getting it confused with some other story?

[tree_and_leaf]

Well put!

[legionseagle]

Frankly, if you read a book written in about 1937 in about 1968 and it gives you vitally important advice for how to cope with a life-threatening situation (see recent post re Fecamp), both on the practical and mental level, which one still both remembers and applies when said situation occurs in June 1994, then I reckon one is looking at "Great Work of Literature" on any basis of assessment.

[legionseagle]

Also I could be wrong, but

A predominately schools audience displayed a degree of restlessness during the contemplative solo numbers – which do slacken the pace of the second half

makes me feel that the intended audience hated it.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, that was my thought too!

[antisoppist]

if Nancy is suggesting a future Scout leader

In Michael Billington's review of the Bristol production he saw Nancy as "a tomboy tearaway whom you can easily foresee turning into the local Tory candidate".

He does admit he's never read it, whereas your reviewer appears to have read it and hated it.

[legionseagle]

It was good to be reminded, for instance, that the daredevil Amazonian Blackett sisters are the products of a suburban villa.

I have difficulty seeing this as deepest suburbia.

[antisoppist]

Beckfoot suburban? What? Was it written by Ray Mears or someone else who thinks nothing apart from proper wilderness isolation devoid of home comforts counts?

[legionseagle]

I can't imagine what they've done with this bloody show (which I have no intention whatsoever of seeing) but I think from the reviews that the Walkers and Blacketts are supposed to be imagining the entire Lake District, as well as the pirates and explorers bits.

[tree_and_leaf]

It's well known that parts of the country outside London don't actually exist!

[legionseagle]

Don't I know it (in 1978, in a girls grammar school in Lancaster -- a school which is now top of the league tables for academic performance, and wouldn't have been far off it then, if they'd had such things -- a fellow pupil on hearing my view of what I intended as a career said, "Don't be ridiculous. Who ever heard of a lawyer with a Lancashire accent?")

[tree_and_leaf]

Aaargh!

[tree_and_leaf]

I doubt the critic would know a Herdwick - say - if it got up and bit him.

[legionseagle]

Please!

[caulkhead]

Perhaps we could borrow one of @herdyshepherds?

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, I would salute the Herdwick that did!

[clanwilliam]

Also, villa? Beckfoot?

[legionseagle]

Possibly "villa" in the Roman sense, but certainly no other.

[tree_and_leaf]

There is the Awful Moment when Dorothea looks at the Great Aunt and is reminded of Nancy, but I still can't see it. At least MB was honest, though.

[legionseagle]

I actually can, completely. It's a question of single-minded absorption in a role. And that's what I can see Dorothea spotting. Which is why (despite Yuletide) I can't buy Dorothea/Nancy whereas Dorothea/Titty is almost too easy.

[tree_and_leaf]

I liked the Dorothea/ Nancy story, but I agree that Dorothea/ Titty is much more plausible. Though I could just about buy Titty/ Nancy.

[legionseagle]

It was well-written, but didn't work for me (I once wrote implied Nancy/Susan of Narnia so my mind is relatively broad on such matters).