I spent the day completing my rereading, reviewing and scanning the illustrations of
First published in 1883, this perennial work was issued in this form by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1949 and repeated by Methuen Children’s Books Ltd in 1976.
It is perhaps every boy’s dream adventure involving a map of hidden treasure, swashbuckling heroes, piratical villains, skullduggery, marooning, betrayal, impossible heroics, murder, battles on land and on sea, a mystery island, and much more, crafted by that master storyteller, Robert Louis Stevenson, with full use of his excellent flowing prose descriptive of trees, shrubs, terrain, sea, and landscape, with his symbolism of night and day, light and dark, and the vagaries of the weather.
His depicting details of struggling with seamanship and wrestling with dense foliage take the reader into that world to share the exertions.
Peake’s numerous drawings convey the drama and the characterisation of the author.
Robert Newton, in Disney’s first full length feature of the eponymous 1950 film, portrayed Long John Silver as the quintessential pirate, even to the extent of all future pirates following his diction.
This evening we all dined on meaty sausages and fried onions, creamy mash, carrots, spinach and tasty gravy, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Garnacha Old Vines.