Talk:The Hundred and One Dalmatians

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[edit] Rewrite

The old Wikipedia problem. I look for information on something and just find a stub. I've expanded the article a lot, especially by adding details of the plot. However, it has been a long time since I read the book and I may have got some details wrong. Any corrections would be welcome. mh. 20:57, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

she wrote a sequel too, who name temporarily escapes me ... something like "The twilight barking" ... -- Tarquin 11:03 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)

I've found a reference to The Starlight Barking (1967) - would that be it?

--Paul A 01:56 Feb 7, 2003 (UTC)

bingo! I read it when I was a kid. Not as good as the first one. -- Tarquin 10:40 Feb 7, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Location of Hell Hall?

Just out of curiosity I'm trying to work out where Hell Hall was actually set, and the route they took to get there. The book places it in the village of Dympling in Suffolk but Multimap and MS Map Point have no details of anywhere called Dympling, and Google just comes up with recipes for dumplings. However there is a place called Shimpling which seems to fit the bill. Combining details in the book with the route into London in The Starlight Barking suggests this:

1. Regent's Park/Outer Circle
2. Camden Town
3. Outskirts of London
4. Epping Forest (stopped overnight at a village here)
5. cross country (route avoiding roads saves miles travelling into Essex, so it probably misses out the less direct route along the old A11)
6. small hamlet with rundown hall
7. Bridge across the River Stour
8. Sudbury
9. "Dympling"

101 Dalmatians suggests that they planned to follow the main road from London to Suffolk. This was before the M11 was built, so it looks like the route was intended to be A11/A104/B1393/A414/A1184 (all used to be the A11) and then somehow getting from Bishop's Stortford to Sudbury.

As far as the hall goes, there are a few in the area near Shimpling. These include:

• Kentwell Hall
• Melford Hall
• Nether Hall
• Blacklands Hall

I'm not sure which of these (if any) is most likely. According to the description in the book it was 200 years old (in the 1950s) with a similar hall next door (the farmhouse in "Dympling"). It has a large perimeter wall with a folly, and a large pond in the grounds, and looks rather like a face. Of course it could be that the hall doesn't exist as this is fiction after all.

The return route is:

1. "Dympling"
2. Gypsy camp
3. village with bakery (described as 5 miles out of "Dympling")
4. country church
5. village where bakery burns down (5 miles from first village)
6. picked up by removal van (with Staffordshire Terrier)
7. presumably driven back to London along the old A11
8. St John's Wood
9. Regent's Park/Outer Circle

The distance from Shimpling to Regent's Park is about 55 miles, which is consistent with the sheepdog's plan to travel about 5 miles a day over 10 - 12 days.

This is all speculation, but it would be interesting to flesh out some of the details in the book. It does seem odd that Smith gives detailed descriptions of London but picks a fictitious name for the village in Suffolk.

mh. 21:29, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Responding to myself, according to [1] the "smart little house" in Regent's Park is 1 St Andrew's Place and is used by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. Also, from what I remember, the 1st edition of 101 Dalmatians has a much better map of the route than the 2006 Egremont edition that I have here. mh. 23:53, 27 November 2006 (UTC)