The story Rip van Haddow, about a Canadian flyer who finds a strange portal into another world after crash-landing in the Rockies, first appeared in April 1963 , but the seeds of this story go back to the days of Sydney’s youth in Scotland. Sydney and his childhood, friend Willie Patterson, although from relatively poor backgrounds were united in their fascination with books and the new worlds of possibility that they opened up. According to Sydney they would discuss together subjects as varied as science, literature and art and these mutual interests bound their friendship ever closer. On one of the many walks they took together in their hometown of Perth, they encountered a young man with whom they fell into conversation. He was of similar age to themselves but from   an entirely different background being from one of the local “landed families”.   Sydney recalls   him as “extraordinary”, having many interests similar to their own but viewing everything through a very unique prism, due to his somewhat eccentric personality. Sydney remembers that “ he hinted at another world beyond our social register” and opened up to them the possibility of subtle worlds , beyond the visible and quotidian. This unique encounter remained with them and its memory was to serve as the basis of the later story. The young man’ s name was –  Haddow.

Skipper Prossitt