Many different editions of Arthur Ransome’s series of “Swallows and Amazons” stories have been published over the years, and we have a selection of the latest Vintage Classics and Red Fox paperbacks available from our Swallows and Amazons shop. The Vintage Classics paperback editions started being released in 2012, and feature a large, clear, easy-to-read typeface, all of…
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…
British sailor Ellen MacArthur was born in landlocked Derbyshire, but developed a fascination for the sport after reading Swallows and Amazons as a child.
If you have ever wondered why you like Arthur Ransome’s books so much, the answer might just be that he is a better writer than even you realised.
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The children in these books believe in their status as explorers in the same way that we believed in Santa Claus. On one level, they know that they are children telling each other stories; but at the same time, they make the stories as coherent and comprehensive as possible, so that they can live fully within them.
So – as far as I can remember, this is about the most dismissive thing that is said about Roger in the whole series. All the children have their own distinct roles, but none are defined by them.
Arthur Ransome’s Swallows And Amazons and the Just William stories. But the bug really hit me when I read John Buchan’s The 39 Steps. By the age of 16, I was enthralled by Ian Fleming’s James Bond series — what boy doesn’t want to live that life at …
Cumbrian landscape is acknowledged the world over as some of the most dramatic and beautiful on this planet – but less well recognised is its starring role in numerous films over the past 70 years.
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,..
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