No.99 - Swallows and Amazons

When I first voiced the idea for this blog it was agreed that if I had already read any books on the list I had to read them again or I wouldn't be doing it properly. That said I realised that I was going to have to re-read Swallows and Amazons even though I had only read it last year! It was one of the set books on the Children's Literature module of my degree, and I'll admit to having rushed the reading the first time around to get it read in time for writing an essay. This time, despite my reluctance to re-read this classic tale it wasn't actually that bad! 

Originally published in 1930, this children's adventure tale is very much of its time. It is littered with phrases such as 'Hallo!' and 'I say!', and the Walker family are very clearly middle class. It's an example of the popular interwar genre of the holiday adventure story, a genre that provided an idyllic and rather romanticised view of childhood; an escape. The story is set in the Lake District and follows the adventures of the Walker children on their summer holiday. John, Susan, Titty (no sniggering please...) and Roger take their little sailing boat Swallow out across the lake to a small uninhabited island where they set up camp and stay for a while. This is all well and good but their mother seems totally unperturbed by the fact that her children, whose ages range from probably around 12 to 7 are completely alone on a small island fending for themselves night and day! Despite this the children actually cope very well on the island, relishing the time spent away from the 'natives' on the main land. Here they meet a band of pirates, the Amazons, and together have jolly adventures on the high seas! 

Swallows and Amazons has rather a quaint story line and a nice assortment of characters, some very loveable and some rather stereotypical. My favourite character by far is little Roger, the youngest and the ship's boy. The book begins with him pretending to be a sailing boat, tacking up the hill to the farmhouse, totally committed to being a ship and loving it! From this point onwards I had quite the soft spot for him and his outlook on life. Titty, which I think is short for Letitia, has a wonderfully romanticised view of their adventure, pretending a lot of the time that she is in an adventure novel of her own. When left alone on the island she pretends she is Robinson Crusoe and when mother visits she christens her Man Friday. Defoe's classic is referred to quite often in the story, along with Stephenson's Treasure Island (coincidently that's no.50 on the list). As you can see the two youngest Walkers are quite individual, the problem, I feel, arises when we consider Susan and John. Susan, although cast as the ship's mate in the adventure, unfortunately falls foul to all the domestic tasks, doing all the cooking, cleaning, sewing, and mothering whilst they are on the island.  She is absolutely the mother figure, telling the crew when to go to bed, to keep warm and worrying about what she is going to feed them everyday. I felt quite sorry for Susan, but then this portrayal of girls was not unusual in those days. Parents liked their children read books that had characters that would be good role models for them, and I think this is the case with the characters of Susan and John. He is the father to Susan's mother, concerned totally with the fate of his boat and his crew, and constantly trying to live up his father's role as a navy man. Despite having read this book twice now I am still in the dark as to which way is port and which is starboard, and I have no idea what a boom or a painter is. And Ransome makes that no clearer! If you, like me, have no idea about sailing terminology then you will be lost by the huge amount of references included in this book. As a child I think this would have really put me off, as its really quite technical. However, if you can get past that then the story really gallops along.

About a quarter of the way into the book we meet the Amazon pirates, Nancy and Peggy Blackett. They are around the same age as the Swallows and live just up the river from the lake. They too have a little sailing boat, named Amazon. Nancy's real name is Ruth, but as Ransom tells us pirates are supposed to be Ruth-less, so of course she had to change her name! They makes friends but also agree to have a war; of course, why wouldn't you! This entails a longwinded but rather exciting adventure in the dark, in which Amazon is captured by the cast away Titty and everyone stays up all night! After this there is another war with a retired pirate who lives on a houseboat, a case of burglary, hidden treasure, a huge and rather devastating storm, shark steaks for tea, a gift of a real parrot, and the threat of a monkey too!

The story is really rather fun, but what makes this book even more charming are the illustrations. Drawn by Ransome himself, because he didn't think anyone else would do a good enough job, these simple little line drawings capture a real sense of the story. Below is a lovely drawing of Titty and Roger having a swim!

Also there is a fantastic map in the front of the book, which everyone knows is the sign of a good book! It shows the lake and the islands, all of which were named by the children. In the story the map is drawn up by John as the ship's chart, complete with giant whale, a pirate ship, wind-blowing lady, settlements and unexplored territory. It's certainly the stuff of pirate stories!

All in all, I enjoyed my re-reading of Swallows and Amazons. It's a classic and should be read by everyone at some point in their lives, especially if you enjoy an adventure!

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up is a Goosebumps book!