Next - Weymouth, the Movie
Posted by:
Jazz_Sue (---.bb.sky.com)
Date: August 25, 2009 04:11PM
I got back from my annual hols last week, and discovered I'd spent a fortnight in Bookworld territory. Not only that, but it was a book I was force fed at the tender age of 10 years. I swear blind that, when I booked my camping trip at sea barn Farm (watch out for the brood mares, they're lethal) I didn't realise the significance ...
The farm is near East fleet, a Dorset village that was all but washed out to sea, in a storm over 180 years ago. Thing is, the village was recreated for Meade Faulkner's "aarrgh, Jim Lad" type novel, Moonfleet, in 1898.
Faulkner used real-life people in his book, turning villagers into baddies and not even changing their names (or at least, changing their names so slightly they look more like typos than attempts to alter fact into fiction)
The farm I stayed on DID get a name change, but the owners didn't - hence, the camping shop had about 500 copies of the Penguin Classic Moonfleet book, at the knock down price of £2.50. wot a bargain.
I went to the ruined church and, sure enough, a bunch of Moonfleet "baddies" were buried in the grounds, minus their "e"s. The top baddie of them all (a wicked magistrate) wasn't nasty at all in the Real World - in fact, he arranged for a new church to be built, 1/4 mile inland. The fact he got the 25 villagers who were left to pay for it, bears no relation to the matter.
Now, the question is - did Meade Faulkner go to Moonfleet, or did Moonfleet come to Meade Faulkner (possibly as part of a "two-for-one" offer in the Sun, during Weymouth Kite week)
'Cos for sure, there has to be some reason why he got away with it, when so many others wouldn't have done.
And why a church 1 1/2 miles inland was mysteriously swamped by a 30 ft tidal wave in the 19th century.
Funny, Faulkner doesn't mention that in his book.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2009 04:13PM by Jazz_Sue.