The first 7 in the
Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome:
Swallows and Amazons
Swallowdale
Peter Duck
Winter Holiday
Coot Club
Pigeon Post
We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea
These are all available online at the Faded Page website, Ransome being out of copyright in Canada (but not England - we have to wait until 2031 unless international copyright changes. I have them all in hard copy anyway.
A classic children's series with more or less the same characters in each, and with continuity between each book (although each book is a stand-alone story). Set in the interwar years, they still seem relevant today although there are now some general issues:
- There's very much an issue with female characters - although the Beckett girls are real tomboys, Susan Walker and Peggy Beckett seem to spend an inordinate time engaged in domestic tasks - cooking and cleaning, and taking charge of the younger children (Titty & Roger Walker, Dick and Dorothea Callum). (We won't mention Titty's name - it's a perfectly reasonable nickname for a girl whose full name is presumably Letitia.)
- Jim Turner's relationship with his nieces, Nancy and Peggy Beckett. Even today, it would have been perfectly in order for an uncle and his nephews, but felt a little off for an uncle and his nieces. Admittedly, the family was rather close knit as the Mrs Beckett was raising her daughters alone, and she and her brother were themselves orphans raised by an aunt.
- The lack of supervision. That is the one thing that now dates the series - even in the 60s I was able to run wild round the neighbourhood with little or no adult involvement. Now, that's all over unless your parents are fortunate enough to own several several acres of land.
Swallows and Amazons
The Walkers are holidaying in the Lake District, and the 4 elder Walker children (the Swallows) want to camp out on an island near the farm they are staying on. They receive permission from their father (a naval officer) and set out. They meet 2 girls - the Beckett sisters (the Amazons) who reside nearby and have used the island as a campsite previously. After some skirmishes, they win the 'war', capturing the Amazon, and in the process finding 'treasure' - a manuscript written by Jim Turner (Captain Flint) who resides on a houseboat in a nearby bay.
Swallowdale
The Walkers are back in the Lake District next summer, and are hoping to camp once again with the Becketts. But Great Aunt Maria is staying and expects Ruth (Captain Nancy because pirates are ruthless) and Peggy to be seen and not heard (except when reciting poetry). The Swallows camp instead in a valley near the Beckett residence so the Amazons can slip away when they can.
Peter Duck
A more fanciful story - Uncle Jim has acquired a schooner and the Swallows and Amazons go with him and an old sailor (Peter Duck) to recover some buried treasure Peter Duck watched being buried 60 years ago in the Caribbean (shades of Treasure Island). Peter Duck's story is well known in Lowestoft, and when the skipper of another boat sees him setting to sea once more, gives chase thinking that at long last the treasure is to be recovered (having tried and failed to find it before).
Winter Holiday
The Callums - Dick and Dot (the Ds) are introduced to the Walkers and Becketts during the course of a winter holiday in the Lake District. The lake freezes over and a trip is made to the North Pole.
Coot Club
The action shifts to the Norfolk Broads. The Ds are staying there with their mother's old school mistress, and learn to sail. Here the Coot Club has it's headquarters: Tom Dudgeon the doctor's son, the solicitor's twin daughters Port & Starboard (Nell and Bess Farland), and Jim, Bill and Pete - three younger boys (the Death and Glories). The Coot Club are keen birders and trouble ensues when Tom sets a motor cruiser adrift which has moored on top of a coot's nest.
Pigeon Post
Back in the Lake District, the Swallows, Amazons and Ds are prospecting for gold in the fells. The drought has bitten hard and everywhere is tinder dry. They end up camping on the edge of the fells after finding a spring in a valley used by the local charcoal burners.
We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea
The Walkers are at Pin Mill on the East coast to meet their father who has been transferred to Shotley (he was on the China Station). Here they befriend Jim Brading of the Goblin and go sailing with him. An accident sends them to sea, and they make a night crossing to Flushing in atrocious weather.
Somewhat dated, but all are still very enjoyable. There's some casual racism in
Peter Duck, but not really in the other books unless you count the children referring to the adult members of their families as natives of whatever adventure they are currently engaged in. Given Ransome's socialist background, working class characters come across as sympathetic, and does not approve of the idle classes (the Hullaballoos in
Coot Club). The other thing noticable is how ecologically sound the books are.
Recommended