Editing Picnic at Hanging Rock (novel) (section)

==Basis in reality==
{{quote box|width=23%|align=right|bgcolor=cornsilk|quote=Did I think the story was true? We did talk about this. But the truth for Joan was different to the rest of us. She was never straightforward about it. I think I decided in the end that it was a great work of the imagination. I see it as a book of place; a painterly book that captures the atmosphere of the Australian bush.|source=Sandra Forbes, editor, on the novel's truth claim<ref name=mcculloch/>}}
''Picnic at Hanging Rock'' is written in the form of a true story, and even begins and ends with a pseudohistorical prologue and epilogue, reinforcing the mystery that has generated significant critical and public interest since its publication in 1967.<ref name=mcculloch/>{{Sfn|Skidmore|Clark|2014|p=127}} However, while the geological feature, Hanging Rock, and the several towns mentioned are actual places near [[Mount Macedon, Victoria|Mount Macedon]], the story itself is entirely fictitious.{{sfn|Barrett|1987|p=85}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/stellar/picnic-at-hanging-rock-mystery-behind-famous-film-lives-on/news-story/a93e2031a29af6794a8abb4c6b1fe174|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=1 April 2017|first=Louise|last=Edward|title=Picnic at Hanging Rock: A mystery still unsolved|access-date=16 May 2017}}</ref> Lindsay had done little to dispel the myth that the story is based on truth, in many interviews either refusing to confirm it was entirely fiction,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thedissolve.com/reviews/884-picnic-at-hanging-rock/|work=[[The Dissolve]]|title=Picnic at Hanging Rock|author=Phipps, Keith|access-date=21 October 2015|archive-date=18 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918220127/https://thedissolve.com/reviews/884-picnic-at-hanging-rock/|url-status=dead}}</ref> or hinting that parts of the book were fictitious and that others were not. The dates named in the novel do not correspond to actual dates in the 1900 calendar. For instance, Valentine's Day, 14 February 1900, occurred on a Wednesday, not a Saturday; similarly, Easter Sunday fell on 15 April in 1900, not on 29 March.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2014/01/on-this-day-picnic-at-hanging-rock|publisher=Australian Geographic|title=On this day: Picnic at Hanging Rock airs in the US|first=Lydia|last=Hales|date=31 January 2014|access-date=14 June 2017}}</ref>

Appleyard College was to some extent based on [[Clyde Girls' Grammar School]] at [[St Kilda East, Victoria]], which Joan Lindsay attended as a day-girl while in her teens. Incidentally, in 1919 this school was transferred to the town of [[Woodend, Victoria]], about 8&nbsp;km southwest of Hanging Rock.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/henderson-isabella-thomson-isabel-6631|title=Isabella Thomson|chapter=Henderson, Isabella Thomson (Isabel) (1862–1940) |access-date=14 May 2017|publisher=Australian National University}}</ref> The fictional site of the college was described in the book as having an eastward view of Mount Macedon on the Bendigo Road. This would place it roughly 5.8&nbsp;km south of Woodend. The total trip to Hanging Rock was about 12&nbsp;km.

[[File:Miranda statue at Hanging Rock, Victoria.jpg|thumb|right|190px|Statue of fictional Miranda character at the [[Hanging Rock, Victoria|Hanging Rock]] visitors' centre.]]
When asked in a 1974 interview about whether or not the novel was based in truth, Lindsay responded: "Well, it was written as a mystery and it remains a mystery. If you can draw your own conclusions, that's fine, but I don't think that it matters. I wrote that book as a sort of atmosphere of a place, and it was like dropping a stone into the water. I felt that story, if you call it a story—that the thing that happened on St. Valentine's Day went on spreading, out and out and out, in circles."<ref name="daily motion">{{cite video|people=Lindsay, Joan (subject); McKay, Ian (director); Taylor, John (interviewer)|title=Interview with Joan Lindsay|format=video recording|date=1975|publisher=Refern, NSW: AAV Australia for the Australia Council|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-date=1 January 1988|url=http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=SLV_VOYAGER692340&indx=1&recIds=SLV_VOYAGER692340&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A%28SLV_VOYAGER%29%2Cscope%3A%28SLV_DIGITOOL%29%2Cscope%3A%28SLVPRIMO%29&frbg=&tab=default_tab&dstmp=1445588179817&vl(10247183UI0)=any&srt=rank&mode=Basic&&dum=true&vl(1UIStartWith0)=contains&vl(freeText0)=joan%20lindsay&vid=MAIN|archive-url=http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:SLV_VOYAGER692340}} (Excerpt available on [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf521f_joan-lindsay-interviewed_people DailyMotion])</ref> The unresolved mystery of the disappearances in the novel aroused so much lasting public interest that in 1980 a book of hypothetical solutions (by Yvonne Rousseau) was published, called ''The Murders at Hanging Rock''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rousseau|first=Yvonne|year=1980 |title=The Murders at Hanging Rock|publisher= Scribe Publications|location= Fitzroy, Australia|isbn=978-0-908011-02-5}}</ref>