Author: Swallows and Amazons

From Mae Thinks Everything goes so slowly when you’re camping. A few years ago there was a thing called the ‘slow food movement’ – it seems to have quietened down a bit now. While it was (like most food ‘movements’) pretty problematic in terms of guilt trips and unchecked privileged and exoticising other cultures, I…

“…the mate and the able-seaman did some washing up… The captain and the boy took the telescope and found a high place… ‘Supposing Susan and Titty were here alone, while you and I had gone fishing… we should know something was the matter, and come back to help.’” I’m watching you, Ransome…

From Mae Thinks One effect of the multiple layers of reality, the children’s investment in their fictional world, is that it makes these descriptions of eggs and oars and hand-sewn tents seem so realistic by comparison. When I first visited the lake district, at about the age of nine, I saw no reason at all…