Swallowdale: Swallows and Amazons Series

If you're not familiar with the author Arthur Ransome, just Google his name to see how big his fan group is.These books (Swallows and Amazons is the first in the series) were written about 80 years ago and the stories are still wonderful. I started reading the S&A books back in the mid-1960's when I was still in grade school. My mom had read them as a young girl and she got me started. I now own all 12 of the books in the series and I re-read them every couple years. Even though I know all the plot lines, Ransome tells such great stories that I always enjoy them as much as the first time I read them about 50 years ago. They're perfect for adventure lovers of any age!! Although you don't HAVE to read the books in order in order, it's better if you do as the author develops the existing characters and introduces new ones as he goes along so you get to know them. Swallowdale is the second in the series after Swallows and Amazons.

such a lovely, evocative and nostalgic book, which has always been my favourite in the series. I'm always struck with an overwhelming urge to go camping in the dales after reading these! The characters are very relatable and likable despite this book being 87 odd years old!I would have given it a full 5 stars were it not for the fact that close to $10 is an absolute outrage for a kindle book which has been in publication since 1931.This is a classic in my opinion, and it's sad to think that price might prohibit some readers from purchasing it.

This is a sequel to Ransome's children's adventure book "Swallows and Amazons." And Swallowdale is just as good, if not better than the first volume. It is another captivating book full of adventures. This time, the Swallows and the Amazons (two groups of children with sailing ships spending their summer holidays at a lake in England) are forced to spend the first part of their holiday on land. It makes for a nice change of scenery in the story line as they explore inland, discover caves, climb mountains and try to get away from a very stern great aunt. In the end, they are able to return to sailing their beloved ships, at which point their summer vacation can truly begin.Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series are fabulous books. And Swallowdale is one of the best. It's well written, captivating, inspirational, uplifting, enjoyable and funny. The adventures of the main protagonists take any child on a wonderful journey of experiences most children dream about. Sailing, exploring the unknown, plotting with friends and allies against naughty grown ups, fishing, hiding, playing games...what more would any child want to do spend their summer? This series was written before WWII when children had no TVs and video games so they played outside. These books were always inspirational to me and I'm glad to say that they help inspire the same sense of adventure and appreciation for the outdoors in my children. I highly recommend this book.

Ransome doesn’t miss a beat as we return to the lake for the next summer. Obstacles include a rock and a great-aunt, but all’s well in the end. My only quibble is that Peter Duck becomes increasingly tiresome.

I am a lover of all things Marple...and to read a children's tale set in the era and location I adore is a pure delight. As a Mother I was horrified that there was no mention of life jackets or safety equipment, but that was soon overcome by the self reliance and wonderful imaginationary adventures created by the children.

Wonderfully written story that should infuse some joy into the soul of even the most petrified of curmudgeons. The author, Arthur Ransome, is a master storyteller who has created a complete world with believable characters engaged in believable adventures. They get into just enough trouble to enable the older reader to recall the joys and sorrows of childhood. The children and adults in these stories live real lives, rather than virtual lives.

The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome is a great series of books for kids of all ages who love adventure and particularly sailing and camping. I grew up reading these books and my kids grew up with them too. They helped instill a lifelong love of sailing and adventure.Swallowdale is the second in the series and continues the maturing process for all of the Walker children. These books are not to be missed.

I am such a lifelong fan, I won't breathe easily until I have all my favorites on my kindle. I probably first read this about age 10-11 and read it to my children. Now I read it again in my 60's. Still just as good. Ransome really understood how young people think but could articulate it in ways they probably never could.Wonderful adventures. Most highly recommended!

Ever since I first read this book as a young child I have loved the tale of innocent fun and childhood imagination. I know these days Arthur Ransome along with Enid Blighton is somewhat decried as being too middle class and too far removed from the real lives of children. I am not so sure, I know outdoor adventure is still something that children enjoy and if boating in the lake district and camping on the islands may be beyond the scope of most but we can dream and books can help. My own children loved playing Swallows and Amazons or Samzons as they used to call it. Later we were able to get closer to these fantasies as we were members of a sailing club based on a lake with real Islands on it.

I have read these books so many times, but during the Covid-19 lockdown I have been going through my old book cases (which are now my daughter's). I had forgotten how wonderful all these books are.There is a beautiful wholesomeness to the characters and the stories and, to me, make far more interesting reading than most adult literature. Their evocativeness is breathtaking, especially the description of the landscape, and in particular the woodland settings which are beautifully realised - a match for Tolkien in that respect. As someone who has a professional interest in forests and trees from a creative perspective, I feel there are few writers who can bring this type of environment to life as well as Ransome, including those who write specifically about woodland and forestry.I have now bought the Kindle version and have spent the past two nights reading it on my phone under my bed covers, just as I read the books as a child. Even better, I don't need a separate torch these days!

This second book in the series has a more interesting narrative than the first (which mostly consists of sailing up and down the lake).The characters are a year older and have developed somewhat (not always to the good, John and Susan are even more priggish and Susan seems obsessed with domestic matters). Titty is as annoying as ever with her deranged witterings about the imaginary 'Peter Duck', when she gets older she will obviously become an author, sectioned or both while Roger is the most interesting, demonstrating as he does that he knows the difference between fact and fiction.What's with the great-aunts in 1920s and 30s fiction? This book contains a positively Wodehousian gorgon of a relative which regularly spares us the bombastic Nancy and the put-upon Peggy.Still a great read!

The Swallows and Amazons return for another instalment of blissful fun, camping and exploring in the Lake District. A year on from the events chronicled in ‘Swallows and Amazons’, the Walker children come back to the Lakes, expecting to camp once more on Wild Cat Island along with their friends Nancy and Peggy Blackett, known as The Amazons. Things do not go to plan.On their first outing of the year, an accident befalls the Swallow, the dinghy adopted by the Walkers, leaving them having to take on the role of shipwreck survivors. Meanwhile the Amazons are beset with family duty. Their great aunt, who brought up their mother and Uncle Jim (better known as Captain Flint) has returned to the family house, and Nancy and Peggy are required to be on their best behaviour which means acting like young ladies rather than running wild and wreaking havoc in their customary tomboy way.Ransome’s writing is as masterful as ever, combining superb children’s adventure stories, in excellent clear prose, while managing to eulogise the pursuit of an outdoor life without ever sinking into sanctimony. His own imagination was clearly powerful, and he imparts this enthusiasm to his characters, both adults and children. He never patronises the children, either the characters or his readers. Widely read himself as a boy, he clearly expects a similar literary background from his readers.Like John Buchan’s novels, written at similar times, Ransome’s books are easily parodied now as representing a very middle class, anodyne perspective on life. That is, however, unfair (both to Ransome and to Buchan). They both wrote with effortless lucidity, and understood the nature of adventure. The Walkers are certainly middle class, but the children all interact perfectly politely and naturally with all the ‘natives’ (i.e. locals) whom they meet, including farmers, charcoal burners and loggers. There is never any hint of awareness of any class divide.Arthur Ransome’s books do hark back to a different world, on that is now long gone, though I suspect that that was true even at the time they were first published, between the World Wars. Like Buchan, he may be invoking a golden or Corinthian age largely of his own imagining, but that does not make the books any less magical. Well over forty years since I first read it, ‘Swallowdale’ remains a delight.

Very dated of course.I grew up with these books and they really fired my imagination as a lad and helped inspire me to go off and do some adventurous things. Not sure how may kids these days would drag themselves away from various screens as these books are of their time and the language and culture is rather old fashioned but is an adult this in itself could be interesting. The kids freedoms expressed in these 'Swallows and Amazon' books are clearly and sadly of the past. Nice to revisit for an aging old git like me!!