Swallows and Amazons

by Arthur Ransome

Four children on summer holiday get permission from their parents to take a little sailboat out to an island on the lake and camp. They range in age from eight to twelve or fourteen. They pack up all their stuff and ferry it over, and their mother brings some things too, checks up on their skills (sailing and swimming) and forbids the youngest to use matches. Then she pretty much leaves them to their own devices, although they have a regular check-in system with a neighbor whose farm is closer to the island. They row over every morning for milk and often get a bit of local news and something to eat as well. They explore their little island, map it out, find the best sheltered spot for their boat, and assign duties all around (the oldest is captain, second-oldest is mate, third is in charge of keeping camp tidy and cooking, etc). Not long after there’s an encounter with two other kids in a small sailboat- girls who identify themselves as pirates (our four siblings are explorers). There’s a serious parlay on the island and a declaration of war- whoever can steal the other’s ship first wins and is henceforth in command of the “fleet”. So the battle ensues, across the lake and through the dark hours. One kid is left alone on the island to be ready for their return, and pretends for a while that she is Robinson Crusoe (once again these kids have a fine command of classic literature). Encounters with locals on shore (whom they refer to as “the natives”) and charcoal-burners in the hills, and girls’ uncle on a houseboat, enliven their adventures. The oldest boy is unfairly blamed of damaging the houseboat and stealing things from it, while the younger girl by herself finds out who the real thieves are, and the kids eventually set things right. While the girls have declared war on their uncle all summer because he quit playing with them to write a book, he now pitches into the adventures with them, and they all have a grand time. It’s amazing the amount of freedom these kids had, and their resourcefulness in solving problems, preparing their own meals from fish they caught, weathering a storm, etc. At the end, summer is over and they are sad to leave the island, but promise to come back next year. I’m sure they do, because this is just the start of a twelve-book series, which I hope to find more of someday, when I’m at used book venues.

It was another difficult read for me, though. I’ve been slowly making my way through it for the past two weeks, with breaks for shorter reads (the Teddies book, and a manga which I haven’t written about yet).  I’ve already started another, much more modern children’s book now which even though has more serious subject matter, is a much quicker read. I think it’s the older language style, the complex sentence structure and lengthy descriptions (lovely though they are) and sometimes unfamiliar words, that slows me down. Still taxes my brain somewhat. I had to look up and remind myself again what parkin is, even though I know I encountered that food item in The Enchanted Castle recently. (And I kind of breezed over all the sailing terminology, though I felt like I could have understood those parts of the story better had I really tried harder).

This book reminded me very much of Bevis: the Story of a Boy and Two Little Savages. I enjoyed and admired it a lot, I’m just dismayed to realize how far behind my cognitive focus still is. I sit surrounded by my bookshelves and wonder how many of them I will ever manage to read or when. (I think I could get through a lot of the casual animal stories now, but the adult fiction, classics and more scientific nature writing are probably still beyond me). I do feel that my writing has improved lately, though.

Rating: 4/5
352 pages, 1985

4 Responses

  1. That second cover for it is beautiful! I’d buy a print of it to hang on my wall if I could.

    I hope your focus will continue to improve! If it helps, I didn’t notice anything off about your writing at all. 🙂

      1. Cool! From some of the other cover options (you can see tons of different editions for it on LibraryThing I was wondering if this had a TV show or movie production version. Sounds like it!

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