The Enid Blyton Society

Last week I read Pigeon Post and thought it was a ripping read. It started off at a leisurely pace but there was plenty of drama in the second half of the book . Crumbs - those children do think up some wild schemes! I've read six Arthur Ransome books now and, of the three that involved camping on or near the lake - the other two were Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale - this was my favourite.

I was surprised to read that one of the children liked "a special kind" of chocolate - "the kind that breaks into squares." Wasn't it usual in those days (1936) for chocolate bars to be made so they could easily be broken into squares?

Anita

I know talking to oneself is said to be the first sign of madness and I seem to be doing it quite a lot in this thread , but I was pleased to come across a clip of the Eastern Angles production of Arthur Ransome's We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea on YouTube (link below). I saw it in July 2008 and apparently it will be touring again in 2010. It's well worth seeing - my daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The child characters are played by adults but they play it absolutely straight, with no hint of irony or spoofing, so I feel it works. Even Titty's name doesn't raise a... well, a titter! I like the Spanish Ladies song, which is mentioned in several of the "Swallows and Amazons" books, and I found myself singing it in the kitchen last night after watching the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr6-HD1uuMY&NR=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anita

Kate Mary wrote:I knew you would enjoy 'Winter Holiday', Anita. Dick and Dorothea are my favouite characters too. In the next book 'Coot Club' they really come into their own, the Swallows and Amazons don't appear, but there is a whole new cast of characters including The Death and Glories, it is an absolute corker of a book.

I read Coot Club the other week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Tom Dudgeon is a very appealing character and I like the emphasis on bird-watching/protecting birds. Above all, the voyage through the Norfolk Broads is recounted in such loving detail that it seems so real. I assume that Arthur Ransome made that journey himself? It would be wonderful to go on the same expedition now, in a similar boat, and see what has changed and what is still the same.

Several of the boats in the books are real boats, sometimes renamed. The Swallow and Amazon, for example, were both real dinghies that Ransome and his friends sailed on Windermere. The Swallow was always called Swallow, but the original Amazon (if I remember rightly) was called Mavis, possibly named after Titty.

Similarly, the Goblin really exists and was owned by Ransome. He called it Nancy Blackett, and I can't remember whether he had it built specially or bought it second-hand. But it's an exact copy, so much so that the tonnage figure John reads off the beam is there in the same place. That boat's still around somewhere in private ownership, or at least it was when Christina Hardyment wrote her book "Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk", and Mavis/Amazon is in a museum somewhere in the lakes.

The museum at Kendal, Cumbria has a "Ransome Room" where a lot of Ransome's original material, including Captain Flint's trunk, are on display.

Thanks, dsr. (It's a relief not to be talking to myself any more! ) I've been to Kendal a few times, though not for many years, but I hadn't known about the Ransome room. It sounds interesting. I had heard about the Nancy Blackett, now you mention it, and the other boats, but had forgotten the details.

You are not talking to yourself, Anita, I always read your posts. I'm glad you liked "Coot Club" it was always one of my favourites.

You are quite right Ransome did cruise the Broads before writing the book, according to Christina Hardyment in "Arthur Ransome and Capt. Flint's Trunk", in 1931 he and his wife hired the yacht 'Welcome' from Herbert woods yard at Potter Heigham and a friend Ted Scott (then editor of the Manchester Guardian) and his son hired her sister ship ' Winsome'. The Ransomes returned in 1933 hiring the yacht "Fairway". On this cruise they moored alongside the Thames barge 'Pudge of Rochester' at Beccles and talked to the skipper and his wife, they also met an old fisherman who explained 'babbing for eels' (see "The Big Six"). I think many of the scenes in the books must have been inspired by incidents on the Ransomes' Broads holidays.

Unlike the lake stories where real-life locations were blended into a fictional landscape, the setting of "Coot Club" is remarkable accurate. I am sure I read somewhere that the endpaper maps are good enough to navigate by.

Incidentally, William the pug existed in real life, he belonged to some friends of the Ransomes, Charles and Margaret Renold to whom "The Big Six" was dedicated.

Happy reading,
Kate.

Very interesting, Kate Mary. Thanks for that.

Kate Mary wrote:Unlike the lake stories where real-life locations were blended into a fictional landscape, the setting of "Coot Club" is remarkably accurate. I am sure I read somewhere that the endpaper maps are good enough to navigate by.

That wouldn't surprise me. I've never sailed a boat in real life but Arthur Ransome's novels seem to give a fair idea of what's involved so I've now been on a few sailing trips in my imagination along with the Swallows and Amazons or Dick, Dorothea and Tom! I've always liked books revolving around boats and voyages including Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island , the stories of Sindbad the Sailor and Enid Blyton books like the Adventurous Four series, The Island of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure and The Ship of Adventure. That's despite the fact that I get sea-sick (thank goodness for travel tablets) and was once very ill on a ferry to Ireland!

Anita Bensoussane wrote: I've always liked books revolving around boats and voyages including Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island , the stories of Sindbad the Sailor and Enid Blyton books like the Adventurous Four series, The Island of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure and The Ship of Adventure. That's despite the fact that I get sea-sick (thank goodness for travel tablets) and was once very ill on a ferry to Ireland!

Hi Anita,

maybe you'd like to follow the fictious career of Forester's Horatio Hornblower (there's a film called "The Captain" featuring Gregory Peck and Virgina Mayo of the fifities) or Kent's Bolitho saga or Pope's Ramage saga, all taking place partly in the war against Napoleon.

Thanks for the suggestions, Wolfgang!

As soon as I saw the title of this topic I started to look for an Arthur Ransome thread!

I used to his books, my dad introduced me to them when I was a nipper and I absolutely loved them. Especially the Swallows and Amazon series.

I lived in Leeds for a few years and it was a great surprise to find out that the house Ransome was born in a short walk away in the Hyde Park area. There is even a small plaque above the door to commemorate this.

A couple of weeks ago I read The Picts and the Martyrs for the first time. It's not as action-packed as some of the other books but I enjoyed it as I like Dick and Dorothea, who feature strongly, and we also see a lot of the Amazons, Nancy and Peggy. The drama is very much a domestic kind of drama but the story is still "outdoorsy" and transported me to a pastoral world of dewy dawns, swaying reeds and grasses, rippling lakewater and roaring wood fires.

I was drawn into Ransome's world again last Thursday when Tony and I met up in London. After walking by the River Thames and visiting the Tower Bridge Exhibition, we went to the Vaudeville Theatre to see a musical version of Swallows & Amazons. It turned out to be a very imaginative production with a parrot made from a feather duster and pliers, and waving ribbons in various shades of blue to represent water. There were a number of flexible "boats" where some parts were detailed (e.g. the prow, mast and sail) while others were just suggested or left to the imagination. All the actors except for the four "Swallows" also provided the (on-stage) orchestral music. The children were played by adults, with the character of Roger (Stewart Wright) injecting a good dollop of humour, and the whole thing was immense fun, capturing the spirit of adventure of Arthur Ransome's book. We were sitting right in the middle of the front row which proved to be a bit dangerous as we got sprayed with water (from the mouth of one of the actresses during a "swimming" scene!) and, when a "pirate" was made to walk the plank, the plank was slid over the edge of the stage so that the far end was practically resting on Tony's nose (I think I enjoyed that scene more than he did! ) At times the actors lay down and leaned over the edge of the stage and we could literally have tweaked their noses had we been so inclined! Brilliant to be right in the thick of the adventure though!

As an aside, the character of Titty was played by a young black lady (Akiya Henry). John, Susan, Titty and Roger are siblings and the other three were white, as were their mother and father, but no issue was made of that. And it really made no difference to the story as what matters is the characters' personalities - John the adventurous boy who feels responsible for the others but sometimes makes mistakes, Susan the practical and homely girl, Titty the imaginative one and Roger who, being the youngest, feels the need to prove that he's not a baby and can join in everything with the others. Anyway, I was wondering whether that's the way producers work these days - that anyone of any race can be considered for any part and they don't have to be "blacked up" (or in this case "whited up") since it's the acting (and singing and dancing in some productions) that counts? Though I wonder whether that policy would still hold for a play where racial issues form a central part of the storyline, e.g. in a performance of To Kill a Mockingbird?

Anyone like Swallows and Amazons? I've seen it at the theatre and I bought the book the other day. The theatre was brilliant!

I've merged your thread with an earlier one, Poppy. - Anita

Yes, Swallows and Amazons is a very enjoyable read although it's quite lengthy for a children's book.

My Dad is currently restoring Winsome, ask us anything!

     I'm going to be like an ignoramus butting into a discussion by experts - but are these stories by Arthur Ransome anything like Enid Blyton mysteries or adventures?
     I do remember a time when I was a boy when I borrowed one from the library (perhaps I'd run out of Famous Fives for the time being, although it was before I'd actually collected all the books), and I did so hoping it would be like a Blyton adventure. I don't remember how much I actually read, but I just couldn't seem to get into it somehow. (It might have been "The Big Six", but I'm not totally sure of that now.) I doubt I read many pages, and seem to remember it was rather slow and difficult (based admittedly on too small a sample of actual reading).
     Do these books feature a crime very often, or are they just sort of sailing and camping adventures without any crime or mystery?
     Just wondering...

Regards, Michael.