Talk:Masquerade (book)/Archive 1

Archive 1

Some edits 2016

• Added proper disambiguation link
• Added Book Infobox
• Cleaned up wording in many places
• Removed factual errors (Kit Williams did know immediately that Thompson hadn't solved the master riddle).
• Cited Gascoigne's book and Mike Barker's solution
• Cleaned up notes, references and bibliography
• Added image of Sir Isaac painting. (Hopefully this will be deemed fair use).
• Organized miscellaneous links
• Fixed chronology. (put "solution" before "scandal" and shifted Barker and Rousseau to a bit earlier too.)

All of which gets it up to about Class B, I reckons.

--twl_corinthian (talk) 12:44, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Radio 4 program

Excellent UK Radio 4 program on the book, with interviews with Williams and the 2 solvers aired in July 2009. Available on iPlayer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.210.14.195 (talk) 21:51, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Cheat?

It seems a shame to devote as many words in the article to the fellow who cheated the contest as to the magnificient book and its author. Thefool 23:20, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the search spawned by the book is important since it started the current armchair treasure hunt genre and it reveals a lot about human nature. I've beefed up that section a bit. The scandal of the cheater is similarly interesting and revealing; maybe even more so. Canon 18:51, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

A sad irony, but true. Thefool 22:45, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Come now - this is a bit strong. As I recall, the SOLE criterion for success was unearthing the Hare. Nowhere was it stated that you HAD to solve the puzzle in the book in order to do this. This may have been the easiest and most obvious way, and for the majority of people it was the only way, and thus assumed by everyone to be neccessary, but you were morally free to use any method AT ALL which resulted in you digging in the right spot. If you had been in the pub in Nailsworth one night, and Kit had been sitting opposite and fallen asleep, and started mumbling 'Ampthill . . . Catherine . . . Solstice' in his sleep, you would have been quite justified in driving to Ampthill and digging up the Hare - it would have been completely within the rules. If you had convinced Kit that the Hare had been discovered and vandalised, and then trailed him to Ampthill and spied on him when he checked - it would have been completely within the rules. Physical posession was the only criterion specified for legal ownership, obtained by WHATEVER method you chose. There was no cheating involved, just loosley drafted rules - subsequent treasure hunts learned from it and specified you had to have solved the puzzle as well. 86.189.10.84 (talk) 00:15, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Agreed! QftGH says Kit Williams was impressed with the cleverness of narrowing the search by investigating him and where he had lived.... although that was before he learned of the leak. Hearing Kit mumble "solstice" wouldn't help much though: since you actually need the *equinox*... you'd be digging too near the Cross in summer or too far from it in winter! :D --twl_corinthian (talk) 14:56, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Was the planting broadcast on "Nationwide" ?

I remember seeing an edition of Nationwide around that era in which I *think* they showed the golden hare being planted: it was buried at night, and the reporter stated he and the cameraman had been sworn to secrecy as to the location...
Was that actually the golden hare, or a report about something completely different ?
86.25.121.171 (talk) 12:39, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Sounds like your memory might have filled in the gaps? There are old TV clips of Kit Williams driving off into the night, then coming back... but that might just be a promo. Bamber Gascoigne's book says he and Williams were the only people present for the burial, and were the only two people in the world who knew the hare's location. --twl_corinthian (talk) 15:26, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Timeline

The timeline of the scandal confuses me a bit. It implies that Barker and Rousseau dug up the casket containing the hare without realising what they found, and that "Ken Thomas" spotted them doing this, waited for them to leave, and then grabbed the casket; but this supposedly happens after Thomas was awarded the prize. I can see how the timeline is supposed to work - Thomas submits his solution, he is declared the winner informally, but is nonetheless asked to actually dig up the prize, but it takes him a few days, during which a pair of physics teachers came to the right answer (presumably without informing Kit Williams first) and tried to dig it up themselves - but... my brain hurts. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 19:12, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Indeed the detailed timeline must be something dramatic. Truth is stranger than fiction. It would be interesting to fill in the details from the published sources. Canon (talk) 16:26, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Both groups posted letters to Kit Williams at about the same time, but Thomas's letter arrived first, and Williams phoned him to confirm he had identified the right spot. Thomas delayed digging because he was (supposedly) ill. Meanwhile, with no reply from Williams yet, the Barkers & Rousseaus went digging. They might have displaced the hare without seeing it, or missed it by a few inches. Then the next day Thomas dug near their holes and found it. There's no indication that the two groups were present at Ampthill at the same time, and they weren't aware of each other (except when Thomas presumably noticed that new holes had appeared). So it's kinda dramatic, but only really in hindsight. Quest for the Golden Hare makes the point that although Thomas' actions look shady, the outcome would have looked even shadier if Barker & Rousseau had found the hare, because they'd have dug it up the day after Williams learned that Thomas had identified the spot by chance. It would have looked like Williams tipped them off, to give the hunt a more satisfactory ending. --twl_corinthian (talk) 15:47, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Date published

ABE Books has it as August 1979. http://www.abebooks.com/books/kit-williams-treasure-golden-hare/masquerade.shtml

Rissa, Guild of Copy Editors (talk) 19:24, 5 April 2015 (UTC)