Matt Dickinson, our Guest Editor for January 2013 - 'As far as I can remember this was the book that turned me into a reading addict! I absolutely loved it, and to this day can remember the excitement of going to a bookshop in Hemel Hempstead High Street with my mother (aged about eleven) to find the next book in the series. The story is pure escapism—sailing on remote Lake District waters, lighting open fires, fishing for trout, skirmishes with ‘pirate enemies’ and campsites beneath the stars on tiny beaches. I never had a summer like that but I often think my love of the wilderness might have come (at least in part) from this skilfully told tale and the books that followed. Sadly, I never learned to sail a little boat. Or light a fire by rubbing sticks. But perhaps there’s still time . . .'
A favourite of Philip Pullman: "As clear and pure as Mozart."
John, Susan, Titty and Roger sail their boat, Swallow, to a deserted island for a summer camping trip. Exploring and playing sailors is an adventure in itself but the island holds more excitement in store. Two fierce Amazon Pirates, Nancy and Peggy, challenge them to war and a summer of battles and alliances ensues.
Arthur Ransome was born on January 18, 1884, in Leeds, where his father was a Professor of History. His father was a lover of the hills and lakes of Furness, and carried the baby Arthur up to the top of Coniston Old Man (later to become 'Kanchenjunga' in the books) when he was only a few weeks old. Every summer, he took his family by train to Greenodd, complete with their belongings packed into a large tin bath, and then by cart along the valley to Lowick and, finally, to Nibthwaite, on the shores of Coniston Water.
It was to be a long time before the memories came to life in Swallows and Amazons and the rest of the books about the children who sailed and explored the lakes and mountains of England. Always fired by ambition to be a writer, Arthur Ransome took his first job with a London publisher and then with the famous newspaper, the Manchester Guardian, for whom he worked for many years as a foreign correspondent.
As a young man, Ransome spent many more happy holidays on the shores of Coniston with his friends the Collingwood family. Mr and Mrs Collingwood treated Arthur as a son and he pays them grateful recognition in his autobiography by saying 'My whole life has been happier for knowing them'. He spent hours on Peel Island, which was to become famous all over the world as Wildcat Island, picnicking there with the Collingwood daughters Dora and Barbara.
