Swallows & Amazons [antikvár]

Introduction Swallows and Amazons was first published in 1930. It was the first in a series of books that told the adventures of two groups of children in the Lake District. The four Walker children or Swallows, John, Susan, Kitty and Roger, sail the Great Lakes in their boat and get into various adventures with the Amazons, Nancy and Peggy Blackett, who later become their friends. Ransome wrote the book while he was spending his summer holidays in the Lake District. At the time, he was entertaining his friends Ernest Altounyan's family and he decided to teach the Altounyan children to sail. They bought two small sailing boats or dinghies as they are called, the Swallow and the Mavis, and the rest is history. In the years that followed, Ransome sold the Swallow, but the second boat, the Mavis, is still on display in the Ruskin Museum in Coniston, Cumbria. Swallows and Amazons was soon very successful and the author left his job at the Manchester Guardian, where he was working as a reporter, to devote himself to children's literature. After that, another twelve books followed narrating the adventures of the Swallows and Amazons. These put Arthur Ransome in the list of classic British children's book authors. Ever since it was published, the series has been very popular. It has also drawn great numbers of visitors to the Lake District, steadily contributing to the growth of its tourist industry. There are also various films as well as radio and theatre adaptations of the book.