April Books 6) Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome

[nwhyte]

"Her real name isn't Nancy," said Peggy. "Her name is Ruth, but Uncle Jim said that Amazons were ruthless, and as our ship is the Amazon, and we are Amazon pirates from the Amazon River, we had to change her name."
This came top of my non-genre poll in December, and I had been looking forward to reading it (on reflection I think I probably did read

Comments

[makyo]

I read Swallows and Amazons when I was about seven, on a family holiday to the Lake District, and really enjoyed it. I then got Swallowdale out of the local library and ground to a halt about a third of the way through, for reasons that I don't remember but which probably had nothing to do with the book. I've always been a little sad about that, because I felt strongly that I should have enjoyed it. I keep meaning to go back to them sometime and have another go.

[nwhyte]

I had read We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea and remember it much more vividly than Swallows and Amazons, but it involves an unexpected visit to the Netherlands which meant quite a lot to me at that age!

[pennski]

I read and collected most of them from about 11 onwards. At the time, I found the sailing quite boring so I preferred Swallowdale because it had less boats in it!

[gareth_rees]

I think my favorite was Secret Water because of the map-making. I always loved making and following maps as a child, and Secret Water captures the enjoyment in this activity.

[vilakins]

I love that series! I started re-reading them again a few years ago and must start again. My favourite characters are Nancy and Roger and I did once write the B7 people into that universe, sort of.