I like this one. I don't love it, because it's mostly focused on the D's who are my least favorite family of the lake kids, but there is a lot of Nancy and Peggy playing non-standard roles, and Nancy loves a bit of skulduggery. No real adventure, not much sailing. I almost feel like Ransome got tired of camping and moved his characters into houses and ships for a few too many books. Pigeon Post is the only book Dick and Dorothea actually sleep in a tent out of six in which they feature.
There are some things to love about this book. Another unexpected turn of events, with no real antagonist (because frankly the GA is being quite reasonable as a responsible adult) and just like Swallowdale, a story that evolved out of happenstance. I very much enjoy anything I can get about life at Beckfoot and environs. Nancy is displaying a remarkable level of maturity in her dealings with the Great Aunt, and Dick and Dot ovecome some serious challenges, like living in an abandoned shack with no window glass and a leaky roof, skinning and cooking a rabbit, catching fish with their bare hands (with remarkable success), sailing their own boat unaided, and burglary. Ok, I take it back, there is adventure here.
Speaking of the rabbit, it's a really bad idea to leave a dead animal hanging around, guts all intact, for what, three days? In summer? I honestly think if it didn't kill them, it would smell and taste so bad it would be impossible to clean and eat. I had one of my girlfriends' fathers teach me how to skin and gut a rabbit because of this book; the description of the skinning is quite accurate, but there's no way they should be allowed to be left with internals intact for days. Their bottle of milk spoiled in a day, but the rabbit with complete intestinal tract is fine for a couple more? Nonsense.
I cannot believe that the GA would really throw all the samples in the houseboat overboard. She knows Timothy must be working with Captain Flint, she knows it's related to mining, she must know it could be important. I often feel she gets a bit of an unfair characterization. She's an elderly woman with no kids of her own, who has firm convictions (and not uncommon ones for the times) of how young people should be raised, girls especially. The Amazons are essentially free-range and so the GA seems horrible in comparison, but I think she's not all that bad. She does care for Nancy and Peggy, and she does notice that Nancy cares for her too at the end when she's 'found'. Actually one of the nicest things about this book is observing Nancy's various acts of empathy where the GA is concerned, once she goes missing at least, and she's no longer wishing she could boil her in oil.
I do feel, with the comments about 'stinks' and Peggy having to sort Nancy out on the telegram wording, that there is a strong implication, as the series progresses, that Nancy is not very intelligent. Missee Lee certainly reinforced this strongly, but it's also a Peter Duck story. But certainly I've been finding Nancy's intellect and interest in academics to be in question as she ages. I wonder what she would end up doing as an adult? I certainly can't see her settling down as a housewife. It was very apparent that she was interested in the construction and launch of Scarab, so much so that one has to wonder if she would find a related career on the lake. If women wouldn't be allowed to be boatbuilders (and I do not know if they would) perhaps she could run a for-hire dinghy service for visitors, or offer sailing lessons and start a racing league. Ideas to explore.
"The smile that the dripping Peggy had seen was one not of amusement but of admiration. Nobody in all the world could have fallen overboard and climbed in again with less fuss." (p108).
Peggy is understated and overshadowed by Nancy throughout the series, even a bit in Winter Holiday, but she's a proper wild cat on her own. Actually I did read somewhere that someone made the observation that Peggy starts out as a real chatterbox in Swallows and Amazons, but by the end of the series she's probably the quietest of the whole bunch. I suspect Ransome didn't really know how to make her an individual, without just being a sort of watered-down version of Nancy. But I like to think of Peggy as someone pulled between some natural Susan-like inclinations, and a core of Nancy-esque pirate. This juxtaposition creates one of the few characters in the books where you aren't completely certain which direction they will go, in a given situation. Reflecting on it, I think a big part of why I like Winter Holiday so much is because Peggy really has a voice of her own in that book. If I wrote a S&A story, Peggy would be more featured. I feel like, and this is reinforced in Great Northern?, that the kids are divided into the elders, of John, Nancy Susan and Peggy, and the youngsters, of the rest. Peggy has some strong competition in terms of personalities in the elders, so she ends up taking a back seat much of time. I want more Peggy.
The description of Nancy rowing sedately along while Peggy trails her hand leisurely in the water before they walk up the lawn, hand in hand, is perfect. Like The Lady of Shalott, drifting in her boat, with uncaring elegance.
The maps are quite good in this one. I miss the old hardcover versions with their color maps, but mine (nee: my father's) literally fell apart from re-reading, a noble fate for a book.
The summer after Pigeon Post. Everyone ages one year.
Every night is spent in the same place for both parties. It's a pretty tame book as far as camping and the outdoors goes. Even with Wild Cat Island right there, nobody sets foot on it for the whole book. In fact, I don't believe the D's are ever there in any of the times covered by the book series. Maybe after Pigeon Post? Almost certainly after Picts and Martyrs, but did they ever actually walk on it even in Winter Holiday? I'll have to go back and check or that will bother me... (they did indeed have tea on the island, aka Spitzbergen) but in any event, for an island that was almost a main character in the first book, it's surprisingly rarely involved in the story.
Mother and Uncle Jim will be back in eleven days (p19)
| Day | Major events |
| 1 | Dorothea and Dick arrive |
| 2 | Move to the Dog's Home
The GA arrives |
| 3 | Cutting the harbour |
| 4 | Meeting Jacky
Tickling trout |
| 5 | Sailing Scarab |
| 6 | Rain |
| 7 | Burglary |
| 8 | Working with Timothy in the houseboat |
| 9 | Working with Timothy in the houseboat |
| 10 | To the mine
The GA goes missing |
| 11 | The GA returns
and then departs |
Closing thoughts.
Since Dick knew the study window was incredibly loud, why didn't he just leave through the front door? I have gone back to check, and the narrative reports that 'a key turned in the lock' [of the study door], so I am presuming that doors back then did not have a keyhole on the outside and just a knob for the lock on the inside, but required a key to lock or unlock from either side. This explains why his only point of egress would be the window. Also would explain how people could peer through or listen at keyholes in 'the old days', I suppose.
All's well that ends well, but what came after? The Swallows are due to arrive 'in a fortnight' from the opening of the book, so three more days, and Nancy would have a great deal of pent-up energy. I think there would be an excellent story here, and then presumably they'd be back to Secret Water to see the Eels again, as planned the previous summer. Five weeks of summer vacation, completely undocumented. I would write a story about rafting down the river from the lake to the ocean, I think. Maybe to be picked up by Captain Flint or Ted Walker at the end?
One complete book to go. And it's not clear if Great Northern? really 'happened' or not, or when it is supposed to have happened. I choose to believe it did happen, that it was not a 'Peter Duck' story, and probably it happened a year or two later, when everyone is older and more mature. But I can't remember it that well, so I'm really looking forward to the re-read.
I will miss the lake.