Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome

Written in 1933, Winter Holiday is the fourth in the Swallows and Amazons series of novels penned by Arthur Ransome. Many people will not realise that there are actually twelve books in the series of children’s books; most people recognising only the first book, Swallows and Amazons.

Winter Holiday is a return to the timeline and style of the first two books in the series, and is in essence a story about an adventure; rather than a story about a story as happened with Peter Duck.
Set in the school winter holiday, Winter Holiday does away with the boats that had been the mainstay of the previous novels. The cold winter has seen the Lake, upon which the Swallows (Walkers) and Amazons (Blacketts) sail, freeze over. This though sets up the possibility of other activities; most notably ice skating, ice sailing and signalling. The ultimate activity though is an expedition to the “North Pole” (a far corner of the lake), although the elements are a natural danger that has to be overcome.

Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome - PD-life-70

Winter Holiday also introduces the Ds, Dick and Dorothea (Dot) Callum. The Ds are perceived as intellectual townies, as compared to the practical country folk as seen in the Walkers and Blacketts. There is continued friendly competition between the children, just as there had been in the original Swallows and Amazons. Winter Holiday also sees a return to interaction with the locals and observations of everyday life around the Lake.

Those that have read other books in the Swallows and Amazons series will find no great surprises within Winter Holiday. Ransome continues to make use of his personal knowledge of the Lake District, as well as his own knowledge about winter activities (primarily picked up in trips to Russia). Indeed, Ransome goes into a great detail about many activities undertaken by the children.

The details offered do extend the book to about 350 pages, but this is broadly in line with other books in the series. The detail though does offer certain sophistication in the writing which is perhaps missing from the likes of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five or Five Find-outers. It is also this sophistication which has ensured that Ransome has a reputation of being one of the greatest children’s writers, whilst Blyton’s work is not so universally praised.

Even after eighty years, Winter Holiday remains a book enjoyed by both children and adults, and is just a good tale of adventure where the only adversary is nature.

We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea by Arthur Ransome

Arthur Ransome is regarded as one of the best English children’s authors of all time. Writing in the 1930s and 1940s, Ransome is most famous for his production of twelve children’s novels in a series known as the Swallows and Amazons series. We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea was the seventh book in this series; Ransome had discovered a style and formula which was popular with children, with little evolution since the first novel of the series, Swallows and Amazons.

The work of Arthur Ransome is most closely associated with the Lake District, but throughout the Swallows and Amazons series, Ransome did make use of other locations. In We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, the characters go to the River Orwell on the Suffolk/Essex border. This book also focuses on the Swallows; John, Susan, Titty and Roger Walker, with little mention of the Amazons or Ds, the other children being at the Lake.

We Didn't Mean to go to Sea - Fair Use

The name of the book in essence gives a synopsis of the story’s theme. Whilst waiting for their father to return from overseas the Walker children are given permission to sail on board the Goblin, a cutter owned by Jim Brading, an older boy of university age. This permission only extends to the boat being operated in the river’s estuary. Accidents occur and the four Walker children find themselves alone onboard the Goblin, adrift in the North Sea. The novel deals with the actions taken by the Swallows and also how they cope with the situation.

As is expected of any Arthur Ransome novel, We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea is filled with details about sailing and makes use of nautical terms. Ransome makes use of his extensive knowledge of sailing, as well as his own personal knowledge of sailing onboard a cutter in the North Sea.

These details do mean that, for a children’s book, We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea is quite long at over four hundred words. However, these same details can also act as an education in nautical matters, and it is often said that Ransome is writing for his readership, rather than dumbing down for them. Written in 1937 it is possible to say We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea is dated, and of course times have changed. This though doesn’t stop this Swallows and Amazon novel from enthralling children, and bringing back countless adults to re-read the book.

Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome

Written in 1936, three years after the previous book in the series, Pigeon Post tells of the continuing adventures of the Swallows and Amazons, the children made famous in first Swallows and Amazons novel. The sixth of twelve novels written by Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post is a children’s novel based on the adventures of a group of children in their school holiday.

Pigeon Post sees a return for the series to the Lake District, and a reunion of all of the children; the Swallows (the four Walker children), the Amazons (the two Blacketts) and the Ds (the two Callums). With the boat, the Swallow, being out of action though, the children turn to camping rather than sailing for the holiday activity.

Finding out though Captain Flint, the Blackett’s (Amazons) uncle, has had an unsuccessful prospecting trip to South America, though pushes the children to start investigating old mining works in the Fells for gold. To keep in contact with responsible adults, the children make use of homing pigeons.

As with the other books in the series, in Pigeon Post the Swallows, Amazons and Ds are faced with the dangers that nature can pose; in this case the danger of fire, as a drought had made the Fells tinder dry. Ransome also adds potential danger in the form of a competing prospector, someone the children fear will beat them to the gold.

Despite the lack of sailing, Ransome still manages to bring a great deal of detail into Pigeon Post, not least because he had good knowledge of prospecting, as well as the detailed knowledge he had about the Lake District.

It is, of course, easy to make the comparison with Five Go Off to Camp, a 1946 novel by Enid Blyton. There are few similarities in terms of style and content between the two. Blyton was always perceived for her simplistic writing, the use of basic language and lack of depth, whilst Ransome was always renowned for the detail he put into his work. The two authors were though aiming at slightly different readership, Blyton aiming to please readers of a younger age than Ransome.

The detail offered by Arthur Ransome turns Pigeon post into a relatively long book at 380 pages long, which is one of the reasons why the books tend to be read by teenagers rather than younger children. The story is still enjoyed by many adults, as well as children.