Swallows and Amazons

I totally understand why this is such a beloved book. It is charming, imaginative, adventure-filled, and just a lovely read. I basically devoured it during a travel weekend. It makes me wish I was spending my summer vacation having childhood adventures in the Lakes District of England.

A totally charming tale of children and boats and summer freedom.

The book makes me depressed though, as it stands as testament to how little competence we assign kids these days, keeping them sheltered and unable to acquire life skills like independent problem solving.

This makes a pleasant read if you don't expect too much. If you happen to come to it for the first time, you should bear in mind that:

1. It's about children between the ages of 7 and 12 on holiday in the Lake District in 1930 (the mention of 1929 in the text seems to have been a mistake), and it's not a fantasy: nothing happens that they couldn't reasonably have done in real life. Although children in 1930 were allowed to do more on their own than would be normal today.

2. The first half of the book is gentle scene-setting, not much happens. The second half is mildly adventurous, as children's real-life adventures go, but don't expect any sex or violence.

Some of the later books in this series have more interesting plots, and of course the children gradually grow older and become more capable. This first volume introduces the scenario and the characters; they get more to do later.

The author is not talking down to children; although he sets the book in what were modern times when he wrote it, I think he's also remembering his own childhood at the end of the 19th century. It gives a child's-eye view of things.

The six children in the story vary significantly in personality. I find John and Susan a bit dull because they're proto-adults: John is already shaping up to be a ship's captain and Susan is already shaping up to be a housewife and mother. Perhaps children like that really existed in 1930.

By contrast, Nancy is a rebel and born leader: a kind of feminist heroine, unexpected in 1930. And Titty is full of picturesque imagination. Peggy is a chatterbox but normally overshadowed by her sister Nancy. Roger is too young at this stage to be anything much but a small boy.