And then surfing the massive waves of SW Australia. I’ve camped in the wild as a child, I’ve fished for my dinner, and aged 10 I was sailing high-performance racing dinghies.Ī little later I was doing serious rock-climbing and abseiling. It has profoundly affected my life – I’ve not done everything that happens in the book myself, but I’ve done a thousand similar things both as a child and as an adult that I attribute directly to the effect of this book. When I say ‘one novel’, I don’t mean ‘one children’s novel’. It is a book I come back to, a book that bears repeated reading, a book that defines both me and how I view the world. If I can think of one novel that has influenced me more than any other it is Swallows and Amazons. The children are the active agents: they are the ones calling the shots and making the decisions. Adults exist in this book, but they are peripheral. Alone without adults to tell them what to do or how to do it. That his children can be trusted to act sensibly and to take responsibility for their own actions. A trust that his children are not ‘duffers’.

That telegram is from their father, and it is a mark of trust. It is used under fair right provisions for educative purposes only. During the cruise we discover the various locations that Ransome used around Coniston Water in his ever-popular Swallows & Amazons series of books.This image may be copyright. Coniston Water was used as one of the filming locations for both the 19 films Swallows and Amazons.Īs soon as you board our launch, you step into the world of the Swallows and the Amazons. On Coniston Water we will see Beckfoot, Holly Howe, Kanchenjunga, Wild Cat Island, the Amazons’ boathouse, and a host of other spots that Ransome used to create his fascinating world. Of course there is no lake exactly similar to the one that Ransome used for his children’s adventures, but he did use real locations for the places that he worked into his stories. Enjoy our 90 minute cruise as we discover these places including Wild Cat Island. Arthur Ransome used many places around Coniston Water to populate the imaginary lake of his books. Green Route About the Swallows & Amazons Cruiseįun for those who are familiar with the Swallows & Amazons stories.

Amazons and swallows