reading swallows and amazons for the first time...

[casbie]

quality writing and pure childish escapism - fantastic!

[RosaLuxembourg]

I am definitely a Titty (34DD). In personality too, I rather fear.

[EffiePerine]

Def a Titty but sounds a bit rude

[MrsBadger]

no no the cave is Swallowdale

lots of sailing in Secret Water

[krabbiepatty]

Having said that Titty was a terrible name, I can't believe they changed it. Pah.

[SoMuchToBits]

Think I am a bit of a Susan - the sensible mummy-type. Ds is 6 now, and into lifeboats in a big way, so I am hoping I can interest him in books about sailing boats! Also dh's Dad has a sailing boat, which ds has been on, so hope to create an interest!

[tortoiseSHELL]

Bridget does feature in some later adventures I think.

[EmsMum]

I keep being tempted by the full hardback set from the Nauticalia catalogue. but horrid price... does anyone know if theres a paperback set available nowadays (I don't do eBay). ?

[SoMuchToBits]

Have googled it, but can't find a paperback boxed set. Might be easier to buy the set in individual volumes in paperback.

[Katymac]

DD has a 1954 hardback series - but refuses to read them & we are buying the paperbacks gradually

[SoMuchToBits]

Having been on this thread recently, I deceide to start reading Swallows and Amazons to ds(aged 6) tonight at bedtime. He really loves it, and pestered me for a second chapter!

[midnightexpress]

OH! reminds me of my dear old dad, who died last year. He LOVED them all and used to read them to us when we were little. The day before he died I read him the beginning of S&A. Lovely books.

[seeker]

Swallowdale is my favourite.

[casbie]

reading peter duck now - enjoying it, but is it 'real'? iykwim?

[bookwormmum]

Bridget is in Secret Water - that's the only one I didn't really like as there was little sailing in that.

I liked Peter Duck but Missee Lee is my favourite .

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

It's not 'real'. It is stories made up when they were all on a wherry in Norfolk over Christmas, in the original unpublished version.
Also, they would not get so excited in We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea if they had already sailed to the Caribbean and back.

I like them all except Great Northern.

[stealthsquiggle]

can't wait to get DS onto S&A - whatever DH says (these things bring out the pseudo-working-class chip on his shoulder!)

I so wanted to be Titty. Did anyone ever aspire to be Susan or was she just there to be dull and sensible ?

[bookwormmum]

They did sail to China though didn't they? Fabby story if not very pc now.

[stealthsquiggle]

Interesting - what's wrong with Great Northern, Kathy? (I realise that growing up with a fanatical ornothologist father may have biased my view somewhat, but I like it!)

[bookwormmum]

In one of the books, Arthur Ransome himself said that no one would want to be Susan - she was just too good to be true.

I rather fancied myself as Peggy but with a bit more guts . Nancy was too bossy for me.

[Debbiethemum]

Looking on Amazon the bbok 'Racundras First Cruise' seems to be part of the same series (ie design on the jacket). Has anyone read it?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

StealthSquiggle - does your DH know about Ransome's other life as a Russian correspondent and possibly spy? He was married to Trotsky's secretary. Also, he was way ahead of his time in his portrayal of working class characters (Death and Glories, Jacky in The Picts and the Martyrs).

I never really understood all the deer stalking stuff in Great Northern, I think, and I found the characterisation a bit tired by that point.

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Racundra's First Cruise - also 3rd cruise; I think the second is being prepared for republication:

it's the diary of the cruises in the Baltic Ransome did with his wife Eugenia (married during the 3rd cruise, I think) in their yacht Racundra, before he came back to England and wrote the Swallows and Amazons books. It's good if you like sailing books but nothing like his children's stories.

[Debbiethemum]

Thanks Kathy

[bronze]

I once went to a dress as your favourite character day at school dressed as Titty. Noone seemed to have heard at her and they all just laughed at her being called Titty. As I've grown up I've decided I prefer Peggy. She seems the most rounded.

I was meant to go sailing in the Nancy Blackett a few years back but had a stomach bug so couldn't go .

I'm very lucky in that my inlaws have a boat on the broads with a dinghy. Shes called swallow in fact (the dinghy) even though she has a centreboard. I can't wait to get my children out in her next summer.

[CaptainNancy]

Well- these were my favourite books as a child- Swallowdale was the best one, I mean who wouldn't want a secret cave of their own?