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.