Dashper X Files #17
X Files #17 (posted by Mark Dashper from Hastings, New Zealand)
An unfinished novel has been discovered in the Harry Ransom Research Centre, written by British Author Flora Thompson in 1944 about our ancestor's house. The release of a copy of her work that combines fact and fiction, is eagerly awaited and a synopsis of the plot has been given by the centre (details below). We are currently applying for copyright permission to obtain a full photocopy of the entire manuscript for study.
"Thank you for your query into the Flora Thompson
holdings here at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.
I went and took a look at the manuscript called "Dashpers,"
which Ms. Thompson wrote circa 1944 and which was intended to be
a novel, but was never finished. It is a typed manuscript,
about 65 pages long, of preliminary draft fragments.
From what I can tell, the story is about a house called "Dashpers"
in a country hamlet (I gather in the UK) that was named after a
quarry behind it called Dashper's Quarry. The story opens with a
young girl and her mother travelling from a neighboring village,
and when the young girl sees the small but lovely house, she
falls in love with it. Later, as an elderly woman, she
moves into the house she so admired as a child. The rest of the
story is told in flashbacks, as the woman discovers the history
of the house, reading through deeds and letters she finds in the
house of the family that used to inhabit it years ago.
That's a preliminary answer to your question; please let me know
if I may be of any further assistance, whether you need more
reference work done, or need to know about HRHRC procedures for
visiting and photocopying. The work looks very interesting
indeed; I wish I had more time to sit and read it!
Thank you,
Amy Filiatreau
Intern, Office of the Research Librarian
XFiles # 17 Update
Flora Thompson's unfinished Manuscript has been located,
copyright approval for release onto our Dashper Website has been
given, and the manuscript may be now viewed on "Dashpers"