Winter Holiday (Swallows and Amazons)

Winter Holiday is the fourth of 12 books in the Swallows and Amazons series, and in many ways it is the most successful as a sequel to [[ASIN:0099572796 Swallows and Amazons]]. It is set on the same lake in England's Lake District and features the same two families of children, the Walkers and the Blacketts.

The winter school holiday instead of summer is an obvious way to ring some changes whilst keeping the essentials the same. However, it means the sailing dinghies, Swallow and Amazon, are out of the water for the winter, and the children have to find other ways of getting around, especially after the lake freezes.

But Arthur Ransome is more radical with his changes than that. He introduces two new major characters, Dorothea and Dick Callum (‘The Ds’), puts Nancy Blackett, the most interesting of his existing characters, to bed with mumps, and tells much of the story from Dorothea’s point of view – for she is an aspiring novelist.

Dick sees himself as an astronomer, and it is thanks to him and his effort to signal, after dark, to ‘Mars’ from an empty barn part way up the fell, that initial contact with the Walkers and the Blacketts, is made. The Walkers and Blacketts are of course also interested in signalling, and before long the whole group is up to speed with Morse code, semaphore, and a made-up system of their own.

The signalling becomes important to the story as they plan an expedition to the North Pole.

I must tell you no more. You will, I am sure, prefer to read it for yourself. If an established Swallows and Amazons fan, you won’t even be wasting your time reading this and other reviews. But if you do need any encouragement, take it from me; you won’t regret it.

Just as described and arrived quickly.