
In 2016, at the Guardian, he tagged ten of the greatest fictional towns and cities in children’s and YA writing. One setting on the list:
Bayport from The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W DixonRead about another entry on the list.
A surprisingly crime-ridden spot on the Atlantic coast of the USA whose various mysteries could only be solved by a couple of teenage boys (and, on occasion,their pal Nancy Drew). They must have chased villains across every spot of Bayport and Barmet Bay several times over in a series that has run for almost 85 years. Franklin W Dixon never existed either, but was a pseudonym under which many authors contributed. Along with Alfred Hitchcock And The Three Investigators (also not written by Alfred Hitchcock) these were vital books in my 80s childhood, although I was unaware of how much of the horrible racial stereotypes had been stripped from the earliest stories.
--Marshal Zeringue