Book Review: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransom

Swallows and Amazons, written by Arthur Ransome in 1930, is one of the most perfect children’s adventure novels I have ever read. My only regret is in taking so darn long to get to it.

Despite being a reader and lover of English children’s literature, somehow I never knew about Swallows and Amazons until I started homeschooling. When I sampled it, I knew that the literary value was extremely high, but I wasn’t in a place where I could appreciate the adventure of it all. I wasn’t feeling well back then, and my kids weren’t old enough to enjoy it yet. I acknowledged its value and made a note to have it in my home, but then moved on to things that were better suited to the season we were in. When I opened my library, all of that changed. 

My patrons (boys 8-12 in particular) could not get enough of the series. Longish books, written with sophisticated English, and full of old-fashioned references, this series didn’t seem like it would appeal to the average boy reader of today. I do have above-average boys in my library, but I wasn’t expecting how popular this series would be with them. When my own Jack read it and loved it and insisted that I try it again, I considered it. Still, there were so many things making claims on my attention, that I wasn’t sure I had the time to commit to it. In between other books, however, I tried. And the first two or three chapters were interesting, but not compelling. I set it aside feeling more disappointed in myself than in the book. 

Finally, this summer marked the close of a particularly stressful and intense season for us. My brain was ready for adventure. Plus, the weather was warm and inviting, and I was ready to read about children camping on an island. I started anew. And this time I was swept up in the magic and found the story very hard to put down. 

I offer all of this context in case the mama reading has, like me, tried and failed to love these books. I offer that if you are reading this, maybe you too were in the wrong season? Maybe it is worth a try again. 

“…with a lake as big as a small sea, a fourteen-foot dinghy with a brown sail waiting in the boathouse, and the little wooded island waiting for explorers, nothing but a sailing voyage of discovery seemed worth thinking about.”

The Walker family is a normal English family in the non-specific time between WWI and WWII. Father, a sea captain, is away on a voyage to Hong Kong, and Mother has taken a cottage for the summer on a small lake. The children (John-12, Susan-11, Titty-9, and Roger-7) are smitten with the idea of “discovering” the uninhabited island in the middle of their lake, and they petition their parents to let them camp out on the island by themselves. 

“BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WONT DROWN” read Daddy’s telegram which meant, of course, that he gave his approval to the idea. And so, Mother set to work making tents and packing provisions while the children made “Ship’s Articles,” and prepared the dinghy named Swallow for sail. 

As a mother, I was a little aghast at the idea that Mrs. Walker would turn her children loose on a lake and let them camp on the island unsupervised for an extended period of time. But Mother is smart. She arranges with a local farmer to have milk and other provisions available daily for the children and requires them to sail over to the farm every morning to collect their goods and check-in. She also wisely pops in unannounced periodically and recruits the help of other locals to keep an eye on the children. It is a great scheme! The kids have a true adventure and Mother keeps a distant but watchful eye. 

Once the idea is realized, the children adopt the language and imagined life of a sailing crew. They delight in the morning baths in the lake, living off of sea-worthy provisions, fishing in Shark Bay, pearl-diving, and the joy of exploring Wild Cat Island and the area around it. But to make this a true adventure story, there needs to be a foil to their crew. And, they find it in the crew of the Amazon. 

“The four explorers of the Swallow stood facing the two pirate girls from the Amazon. The Amazons were bigger than most of the Swallows. One of them was bigger than Captain John. The other was about the same size. If it had come to a fight, it might have been a very near thing. 

But it did not come to a fight. 

‘Let’s parley first and fight afterwards,’ said the leader of the Amazons”

Nancy (12) and Peggy (11) Blackett and their widowed mother are residents of Holly Howe farm, and they have their own dinghy named Amazon. The Amazons claim Wildcat Island as their own from years of visiting it. The two crews decide to be friendly enemies and to band together against the evil houseboat captain who seems to hate them all. (Many have speculated that the houseboat captain is, in fact, Arthur Ransome himself.)

This is high imagination at its best! It has all of the wonder and fun of Narnia but the children are firmly in this world. They take everything they are doing and pretend it is something straight out of the classical children's books they love. The siblings are good to each other, good to their friends the Amazons, and obedient and respectful of their mama. The Amazons are spunky, smart, less respectful of adults, and they make everything they do exciting. In essence, these children are very realistic and fun to love. 

Like Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables, my storybook reading as a child led me into living two lives – the regular one and the one I was loving inside my imagination. A walk home from school was the chance to be Laura Ingalls walking home from her school, a walk in the woods was a search for Robin Hood, and a quiet Saturday in my room was an invitation to be Rebecca, from Ivanhoe, trapped in the tower. When I was reading this amazing story, I wanted to be 12 again and have this adventure with them!

Modern readers may notice that the Swallows consider themselves to be able seamen, the Amazons pirates, and everyone else natives. The use of this word is not disparaging, and it is in keeping with the vocabulary of that time. 

I cannot recommend this book more highly. The language is excellent, the story is fantastic, the values are on point, and Ransome teaches the reader so much about ships, the natural world, and pirate lore. This is a must-read. I cannot wait to use it as a spring book club in my library! We may make a Plumfield Guide for this classic.