It’s great to see this take on AR as a nature writer.
Although I never loved his East Anglia-set books as much as I did/do the Lake District ones, there’s no question that nature is very much to the fore in both Coot Club and The Big Six, indeed they make a good case for seeing AR as an early advocate for conservation. Also very obvious in Great Northern?, with the story hinging on defeating the egg-collector.
I’ve written various things about Ransome myself, including a recent piece on ‘Swallows, Amazons, and Adventure’ on my own Substack.
I was never as keen on the East Anglian ones either! Great Northern? is an underrated one though and, as you say, has an important conservation message.
Loved the Swallows & Amazons books as a kid. The book I’m working on at the moment (about Charles Darwin) contains a chapter about dippers, in which I refer to the time Titty Walker observed one. Nine years back, I finally got to visit Wild Cat Island! http://richardcarter.com/sidelines/wild-cat-island/
There's a great book by Robert Twigger called 36 Islands where he visits all of the Lake District islands including Wild Cat Island and Titty's Treasure Island.
I do remember reading a couple when I was young, but it was so unlikely that I would ever learn to sail that I abandoned the project! But I did enjoy the writing
I think I was always happy to just experience the sailing element second hand! Interestingly, my favourite AR, Winter Holiday, has very little sailing in it.
It’s great to see this take on AR as a nature writer.
Although I never loved his East Anglia-set books as much as I did/do the Lake District ones, there’s no question that nature is very much to the fore in both Coot Club and The Big Six, indeed they make a good case for seeing AR as an early advocate for conservation. Also very obvious in Great Northern?, with the story hinging on defeating the egg-collector.
I’ve written various things about Ransome myself, including a recent piece on ‘Swallows, Amazons, and Adventure’ on my own Substack.
And Winter Holiday is my favourite too…
I was never as keen on the East Anglian ones either! Great Northern? is an underrated one though and, as you say, has an important conservation message.
Loved the Swallows & Amazons books as a kid. The book I’m working on at the moment (about Charles Darwin) contains a chapter about dippers, in which I refer to the time Titty Walker observed one. Nine years back, I finally got to visit Wild Cat Island! http://richardcarter.com/sidelines/wild-cat-island/
There's a great book by Robert Twigger called 36 Islands where he visits all of the Lake District islands including Wild Cat Island and Titty's Treasure Island.
I do remember reading a couple when I was young, but it was so unlikely that I would ever learn to sail that I abandoned the project! But I did enjoy the writing
I think I was always happy to just experience the sailing element second hand! Interestingly, my favourite AR, Winter Holiday, has very little sailing in it.
This is lovely, Shelly! Wish I'd discovered Ransome as a child... but never too late to escape into its magical, nostalgic world.
Thank you 🙂 I was lucky to find them at just the right age!