Apologies to my
regular readers in Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Indonesia, to whom this
post will mean very little. Also to my
three or four readers in this country, who might be too young or old to share
my nostalgia. I hope everyone else
enjoys it.
I’ve just finished reading the two Arthur Ransome books Z
gave me for Christmas. These are ‘We
Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’ and ‘Secret Water’ (both of which are set, or in the
case of WDMTGTS, start and finish in East Anglia, which presumably explains why
she found them, in almost certainly the same 1950s editions that I’d read the first
time around, in a local bookshop.)
My parents – my mother to be precise, because my father wasn’t
a great reader; actually you can leave out the ‘great’ – dutifully supplied us
kids with age-appropriate reading. I don’t
remember the full range, but it boiled down to two varieties: numerous variants
on Enid Blyton’s single imaginative product; and Swallows and Amazons.
Although Z and I had shared our recollected love of these
books, I was slightly nervous about returning to that world after an absence of
at least sixty years – that world wouldn’t have changed, but I probably had.
I’m not writing critical reviews of these marvellous books
(oh, oops, I just did), nor will I spoil them with summaries of the plots
(though I could quite easily: bunch of kids are placed in unintended peril by
their remarkably self- and child-indulgent parents, survive imaginary and real
threats by a combination of good luck, rapidly acquired skills and quite
implausible grown-upness) or textual analysis (they do talk a bit quaint like,
innit?) Instead here’s a quick breakdown
of the main characters and, most importantly, two words each on what they gave
me all those years ago.
The Swallows:
John (practical, anxious); Susan (elder sister); Titty (mischievous fantasist), Roger (word-playing joker).
The Amazons:
Nancy (intoxicated challenger); Peggy
(invisible make-weight).
Almost everything else has vanished, if it ever existed; but
they haven’t changed, and nor have I.
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