This book is foundational, of course. It introduces the characters, sets out the time and setting, and as such I feel it's always been a bit 'shallower' in terms of character development and plot than the later books. There is a lot to introduce here, and it's not a particularly long book so much of it is spent in setting the stage for later books. That being said, this one started all my dreams of camping without adults. I made lists like the one the Walkers made on Darien, I made arrows with green feathers, I learned to sail. It's impossible not to consider this one highly, and while it's not my favorite when compared to the others in the series, it is certainly in the top five.

The temporal setting is an interesting one. The book was published in 1930, and on page 123 (all of my books are by Red Fox) it is stated that the year is 1929. "Signed and sealed at this place of Wild Cat Island in the month of August 1929". This date will be called into question in Swallowdale which is the following summer but indicates 1931. The discrepency is addressed further along on this page.

We know that the Walkers, soon to be the Swallows, arrived at Holly Howe quite a long time prior to getting out in Swallow. "...on the very evening of their first coming, a fortnight before," (p3). We also have, "They had been looking at it [the island] for ten days" (p6). Oddly the same page indicates "Looking down from Titty's Peak in the evening of the day on which they had come to the farmhouse". A fortnight is 14 days. They had been looking at the island for 10 days, starting on the evening they arrived at the farmhouse. The number simply do not add up, we are missing four days.

Either way, we do not really have a sense of what the Walker children did for those 10 (or 14) days. They have, oddly, not sailed Swallow at all. Even if they are waiting for approval from their father for camping on the island or to sail without an adult, they could have been sailing around from Holly Howe day by day with Mother, as they do prior to heading off on their own. John and Susan are both capable sailors and swimmers, surely they at least could have been day sailing. The Walkers do not seem to have ventured far from Holly Howe, although they do seem familar with Rio enough to know where to buy grog. We do know they rowed about somewhat, but never in the direction of the island which begs the question, what the heck were they doing for 10 days? Sitting on Darien and staring forlornly at the lake? Shopping in Rio?

Also very open to discussion is what the Amazons were doing for these days. It's hard to imagine, given how news travels around the lake quickly (consider Captain Flint's opinion of the Swallows) that the Blacketts hadn't known there were four new children staying at Holly Howe. Yet there is no mention of the Amazons prior to the houseboat firework incident. Surely they would have been sailing up and down the lake, and have been spotted by the Walkers through their telescope? Why in fact had the Amazons not already moved to camp on Wild Cat Island? Summer holidays in England typically would begin mid-July, and run until the beginning of September. Swallows and Amazons itself covers 15 days, as we will see when I document the timeline below. If we add a few days for prep and travel, we might theorize that the Walkers arrived at Holly Howe on August 1. Were the Amazons sitting at home idly for two weeks prior to the firework incident? Did the Swallows not hike and row around to explore? This period could use some filling in, I feel.

Perhaps the Amazon Pirates were well aware of the Walker children, but were waiting to see how adventurous they were. There must be many children around the lake at this time, but the Amazons are not known for 'playing' with any but the Swallows and later the D's (Callums), both on holiday. Perhaps a story covering the first two weeks of August is called for, with the Walkers exploring their surroundings timidly, being city children (are they? They are quite good at fires and comfortable on their own in the woods) and the Amazons adventuring (with other local kids?) before perhaps they catch sight of the Swallows. Could it be that Nancy's forthright manner has turned the local kids, especially the males, off playing with her?

Possibly the Amazons themselves are not allowed to camp alone on Wild Cat Island, with Captain Flint 'gone native' this summer? Or maybe the Amazon pirates, while stalking the unknowing Walkers, observed them looking at Wild Cat Island, and not wanting any sort of opportunity for adventure to slip through their fingers, choose to not camp on the island or otherwise intimidate the Walkers until they ascertain to what degree these interlopers are potential playmates. It may very well be that the Walkers explore the igloo site, the tarn, maybe High Greenland, all while being stalked by Amazons waiting for them to get well beyond the grounds of civilization, so that they can then spring on them as victims and/or companions. Maybe Nancy has scared off previous holiday kids and has been reined in this year until the new batch proves themselves? Once the Walkers, now the Swallows, make landfall on Wild Cat Island, the Amazons let slip the dogs of war and adventure begins, properly.

One thing I found particularly interesting about this book, and to my recollection the series in general, is how little description of the characters there is. Does Susan have straight hair or curly? Is Peggy blond or brunette? Is John lanky or stocky? We can draw out some of these answers thanks to Ransome's line art, but in general the details are left mostly to our imagination. More description is made of the minor characters in the book than of the main cast. Vicky (Bridget) is "a fat baby" (p7), Captain Flint is "a big fat man" (p31) and Molly Blackett is "a very little woman, not really much bigger than Nancy" (p403) although I believe we find her described as 'round' in Pigeon Post or Winter Holiday, something that Nancy surely is not. We have no such physical description of the main cast except relative to each other, for example on meeting the Amazon pirates "One of them was bigger than Captain John. The other was about the same size." (p114)

I imagine, aided by the illustrations, that all the child characters are generally thin. They are all active, and there is a general lack of processed foods in the 1930s, 'pemmican' aside. I imagine Nancy and Peggy as both tall for their ages (which we will explore), given that Nancy is as tall as her mother, and I picture the Amazons with straight black hair, cut short in pageboy style, although in The Picts and the Martyrs I believe that Nancy indicates that her hair is less work than Peggy's, so perhaps Peggy has a bit of wave to hers. Nancy would not want hair getting in her way, and Peggy would follow Nancy's lead. The Swallows are all auburn or towheads, with Susan and Titty having shoulder-length hair, and John and Roger are clipped short, coming from a military family as they do. One problem I have here is that I am naturally influenced by the 1974 film, especially for some reason by Susan, although it could be simply because I have always admired Suzanna Hamilton as an actress (wonderful in Nineteen Eighty-Four). I believe John would not have yet hit an adolescent growth spurt, while Nancy, who is his age, and Peggy and Susan, both a year younger than John, would mature earlier, and as such John is probably only slightly taller than Susan and Peggy, but shorter than Nancy. In general the narrative does not peer into the minds of the characters as to how they regard each other beyond behavior. Perhaps Ransome was uncomfortable detailing the appearance of adolescent girls in the 1930s? We will never know for certain. Imagine if you will that for most of these adventures, Titty, Susan and Dorothea are all wearing dresses! I like the various references to bathing clothes being outright savagery as well, when female bathing suits covered virtually their entire bodies. Different times.

Ages. This one is cloudy in terms of the narrative, although Ransome himself does put it to rest external to the books. We know only that Roger is seven at the opening of the book, from the opening line, "Roger, aged seven". Seven is incredibly young to be going camping without an adult, and to put the burden of responsibility for a seven year old on the shoulders of kids not much older is quite astounding. But it was a different time, and what is unimaginable now was not so far out of the ordinary then, perhaps. We do have some researched notes on ages available.

Roger Wardale's book In search of Swallows & Amazons reports that in Arthur Ransome's original notes:

Swallows: Dick (scored out) John 12, Susan 10, Titty 8, Roger 6.
Amazons: Jane 13, Mary (proper name Ruth) 12, Tom 3.

Swallows: John 12, Susan 10, Titty 9, Roger 7, Victoria (Bridget) 1 1/2.
Amazons: Jane (scored out) Nancy 13, Mary (scored out) Peggy 12, Tom 3.

Ransome himself later wrote out a chronology which was published in The Best of Childhood by Roger Wardale and also addressed the 1929/1930/1931 paradox that appeared in Swallowdale:

For those who would like to know exactly how old Ransome thought the Swallows and Amazons 
were, there is a single sheet of paper written about this time [1943] that clears the 
question for good and all. In Swallows and Amazons (that is placed in 1930 - not 1929) 
John and Nancy are 12, Susan and Peggy are 11, Titty is 9 and Roger is 7. By the time of 
the proposed sequel to The Picts and The Martyrs in 1933 that he called 'Swallows & Co', 
John and Nancy are 15, Peggy and Susan are 14, Dorothea is 13, Titty, Dick and Joe are 12, 
Bill is 11 and Roger and Pete are 10.

So, for Swallows and Amazons in August 1930, we have:

• John: 12
• Nancy: 12
• Susan: 11
• Peggy: 11
• Titty: 9
• Roger: 7

We also know, while we are documenting ages, that from pages 191 and 192, in terms of birthdays, John has "just had one" and Susan's is "on New Year's Day". Bridget's is during the time of the novel. Because John just had a birthday, we can conclude that Nancy is the eldest since they are both 12 at the opening of the novel.

Speaking of time, it is perhaps worthwhile to document the timeline internal to the books. I have never had a clear grasp of how much time passes and I was quite surprised to learn exactly how many days the Swallows spend camping alone on an island. This is a necessary step for plotting their paths on a map anyway.

Day	Major events	Night spent at
1	Despatches	Holly Howe
2	Gathering supplies	Holly Howe
3	Move to island	Wild Cat Island
4	Dixon's farm for milk Cormorant Island	Wild Cat Island
5	Fishing	Wild Cat Island
6	Firework Pursuit of Amazon Rio	Wild Cat Island
7	Green feather, parley	Wild Cat Island
8	Charcoal burners	Wild Cat Island
9	Warning Captain Flint Swim around island	Wild Cat Island
10	War	Various
11	Recover from war	Wild Cat Island
12	Amazons move to island The black spot	Wild Cat Island
13	Houseboat attack	Wild Cat Island
14	Shark fishing Finding treasure	Wild Cat Island (storm)
15	Depart island	Holly Howe (Swallows); Beckfoot (Amazons)

I believe the longest I have ever camped was about 5 nights, although I carried my food with me rather than being regularly supplied with milk, fresh eggs, and cake. These kids practically live on Spam (corned beef, aka pemmican), eggs, and cake. I find their constant tea drinking to be interesting, I don't know if that's because back then they really drank tea constantly, or if they are boiling their water to purify it and so might as well make tea. Seems odd to worry about boiling water and yet drink unpasturized cow milk every day though; the number of ailments one can get from raw milk is large, and quite scary.

Closing thoughts.

For all that many people seem to consider Nancy to be a golden child who can do no wrong, and dislike her for that 'Mary Sue' characteristic, she is responsible for John being blamed by Captain Flint for the firework, which she clearly regrets (and yet some people consider her to lack empathy) and immediately sets that right when she learns of it, and she loses Amazon to Titty in the war due to a lapse in judgement.

At a maximum age of 12 it's a bit early to start thinking about any sort of attraction between characters, which seems to be a common area of interest for discussion between fans, adult fans at least. That's not to say it might not be there, but it isn't going to be overt enough to manifest in the story. I also think any sort of focus on romance, while appealing to adult readers, would really turn off many youthful readers. Some things are best left up to our imagination, at least for now. Like where they use the bathroom.