Swallows and Amazons
Published in 1930, Swallows and Amazons is about six children who sail, camp, and find timeless adventure during a holiday in England’s Lake District. It is full of excitement, a little danger, planning, and delightful fun.
This story introduces the Walker family, the camp on Wild Cat Island, the able-bodied catboat “Swallow”, and the two intrepid Amazons, plucky Nancy and Peggy Blackett. Other distinct characters include the Australian mom, a neighboring farm wife, serious older siblings, and head-over-heels enthusiastic younger kids.
- About the author: Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist. He remains best known for writing and illustrating the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. The entire series remains in print, and is the basis for a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water, the two lakes Ransome adapted as his fictional North Country lake.
