Swallows and Amazons Chapter I: Better drowned than duffers…
From Mae Thinks
So here we sit, on the shores of an adventure…
And that opening image, of Roger tacking diligently up the field towards his mother, resisting the urge to run straight towards her and the message she holds because it would break the reality he has constructed. These children are doing Real Life, in a big way, and they are also moving seamlessly in and out of fantasy and metaphor, constructing explanations for the the things they see that will enable them to sustain their world of adventure. I love this, and it strikes me as very realistic, and I love way their mother embraces it as well.
My mum never particularly liked this part of the story. Her empathy was all with Mrs Walker, whose husband, away on the other side of the world and never quite certain of when he would next be at home, now seemed to be saying that he didn’t particularly mind whether or not his children drowned in the lake.