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Swallows, Amazons and Coots: A Reading of Arthur Ransome. By Julian Lovelock. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2016.
Julian Lovelock's study provides, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the entire Swallows and Amazons series from a literary studies perspective. Lovelock not only holds the professional distinction of being editor of the Arthur Ransome Society's journal, Mixed Moss; privately, he also shares with Ransome a love of boats, the English countryside, and childhood holidays filled with adventure. This personal rapport provides not only astute academic analysis of Ransome's novels but also a sensitive understanding of their continuing relevance.
The Swallows and Amazons series consists of twelve novels for children, written between 1930 and 1947; never out of print, the books constitute one of the cornerstones of classic children's fiction and epitomize the celebration of innocence and wholesomeness that characterizes the so-called golden age of children's literature. At the same time, however, Ransome's unique experiences as a journalist, war correspondent, and sometime agent of MI6 brought to the series an undercurrent of serious social and political commentary. Swallows, Amazons and Coots contextualizes Ransome's work within both its publication and readership histories and modern literary criticism. Lovelock explores the unique combination of social and historical events, personal experiences, and historical perspectives that went into the creation of each volume, teasing out the complex themes and contradictions that make the novels unique and enduring.
Biographies of Ransome abound, as do critical examinations of his work; this, however, is the first critical volume...