Oh, and I'll add a cross ref to that excellent Russian dig at the Demjansk battlefield.

FFF is an awesome tour gil.

This is impressive! I am sure it will influence my rereading the book.

Thanks for the effort.

The F:F:F site is now updated:
http://www.nascr.net/~fff

Updated - Antique Shop
Park Hyatt
Miscellaneous

Sorry, JRE, I missed the other two Cristina pictures copyright - I'll fix it next update.

*cough cough*

What's that supposed to mean, Heilagr?

(If you are Cristina, I'm sorry. I've done no updates since September 1! But I'll be doing one soon)

As far as I know she/he/it isn't my wife, but I might be mistaken.

I suppose heilagr refers to Gibson mentioning the F:F:F: site in his last blog, both as a surprise because WG had not seen it before, and to bump it up to the top, so that others could find it more easily.

José

Your wisdom, JRE, is without compare - of course that must be it.

btw, I spent New Year near San Pedro de Alcantara - excellent golf, wonderful weather, great food. I salute Spain, but I gather the weather hasn't been so good up North..

Glad you enjoyed in the south. Up here we had a white Christmas, which is quite unusual, and a few days without the temperature going over freezing, so you were lucky in your location choice.

Food generally is still good all around.

José

For your interest, William Gibson's recent mention of F:F:F in his blog caused a spike in the first week of January of 200 times the average weekly viewing figures, a level which has since settled down to a comfortable 6-fold increase in views!

So that means that there are lots of people reading WG's blog, even with the long silences.

Good for him.
And for you.
And probably us.

{William Gibson's recent mention of F:F:F in his blog caused a spike in the first week of January}

Is it me, or is the only thing on FFF the pictures of book locations?

Yes, that's the purpose of the site.

quote:

So that means that there are lots of people reading WG's blog

or perhaps WG is obsessive!

gil, it's so great to have all this info here, i'm travelling to the UK in may/june, and am at the point where for a week i thought i'd run out of things to plan. on the weekend it occurred to me that i'm yet to plot out the fan-trails. (btw we'll be staying nr ambleside for a couple of nights, i picked a b&b near loughrigg fell that i can pretend is beckfoot)(you know home of the amazons. right next to a river, too.)

Misty, how did you know I'm an Arthur Ransome fan, too? I was going to recommend you buy Christina Hardyment's "Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk", which I got quite cheaply about 10 years ago, but I find it is now out of print and VERY expensive second hand. It's a stroll through Swallows and Amazons locations, in much the same tone as the F:F:F site, though poorly illustrated.

you said so a long time ago. we have a family copy of the hardyment, never fear. i read it while in the lakes (actually even took it to peel island) when i was 10.

we also have a softback by roger wardale where he matches pics.

we found a farmhouse, entirely by accident which features in neither book with "TYSON" above the door and a steep stone path behind. and visited swainsons farm in high nibthwaite just as taqui altounyan pulled up on her way to bridget's.

it was a magical trip really.

That truly WAS a magic trip. Beryl and I hired an Amazon-like dinghy in the Broads a few years ago. That was nice, too.

And I forgot to mention that Richard Adams' Plague Dogs features a lot of Lakeland locations, too

i remember your mentioning the broads trip too. i was hoping we might be able to slot east anglia into our itinerary but we'll be sticking to the west generally.

the boatyard that we hired the little motor boat (don't tell john!) from in coniston had the amazon they used in the movie. we also got a pic with that.

gromit & martin read a bit of ransome too.

i'll be taking pics this next visit, i might email you the odd one if that's ok. i fear i'll be fairly isolated in my fan-dom.

did you ever read old peters russian tales? both (animated movies) spirited away and howl's moving castle seem to borrow from the old russian folk stories, or perhaps there's just a common thread through the japanese and russian cultures. houses with legs, oversized babies, the names of the witches, the notion of a kind girl managing to defeat a powerful magic force.

Most likely those are Miyazaki's personal tropes, more than anything else. On the other hand, Howl's Moving Castle is based on a book, and not a Japanese one either.

quote:

Originally posted by gil:
For your interest, William Gibson's recent mention of F:F:F in his blog caused a spike in the first week of January of 200 times the average weekly viewing figures, a level which has since settled down to a comfortable 6-fold increase in views!

That really is a wonderful site, gil, it deserves all the attention.