by Georges T. Dodds
With the critical acclaim for Susanna Clarke's tale of 19th century magicians in London
(Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel),
the popularity of Worst Witch,
a TV series set in a British private girl's school
for witches, and the Harry Potter series,
it is clear that British wizards and magicians are seeing a wave of popularity not experienced since the days of
John Dee, and that this magic is particularly popular when placed
in the hands of pre-teen wielders.
However, it is a different sort of magic -- that of the outdoors, of Nature, of imagination, of play and of learning and social dynamics
it brings to children -- that interests Georges.
[Editor's Note: Here you will find the other British Children Have More Fun columns.
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Of these 12 titles I must confess to have read only the first five, not yet having been able to track down copies
of the rest; still, I think these titles are fairly representative of the overall series. In Swallows and Amazons
we are introduced to John, Susan, Titty (Letitia), and Roger Walker (the latter 7 years old), British school-children
spending their summer holidays with their mother near a lake in northern England. From an overlook they can see a large
island, and plan to sail there and camp. After some planning and gathering of equipment and food, they do so, with John
as captain of the small sailboat Swallow, Susan as mate, Titty as Able-Seaman, and Roger as ship's boy -- setting
up camp on the island they name "Wild Cat Island." They settle into a routine of going to shore each morning to pick up
milk and eggs from a farm, fishing between the island and the mainland until the sharks (pike) discover them, and meeting
colourful characters such as the charcoal-burners. After having seemingly annoyed the owner of a houseboat, the
Swallow is taken, and are they ambushed on their island by two older female pirates, Nancy (Ruth) and Peggy
Blackett, master and mate of the sailboat Amazon. The Swallow is returned, but the two groups declare
mock war on one another, the spoils to the ones who can capture the other's ship. Night attacks are confounded on both
sides, a seemingly successful raid on the island instead stranding some participants on the island. All this eventually
leads to the discovery of the stolen belongings of the grumpy man on the houseboat, the Blackett's uncle, Capt. Flint.
The next book, Peter Duck, is by some
accounts a fictitious story, made up by the Walker children, around a sailor character of their imagining who "appears"
in Swallowdale. There is a sailing on the high seas, nasty pirates, a devastating hurricane, and a treasure hunt
on a seismically-active Caribbean island. However, it can certainly be read as a slightly out-of-sequence account of a
real occurrence.
In Winter Holiday the heroes of the previous books are joined by the Callum children,
Dick and Dorothea, who are staying at the Dixon farm where the Walkers obtained their milk and egg supplies in
Swallows and Amazons. Dick brings his knowledge of astronomy to the mix and Dorothea is a budding
author, who sees material for the great novel in everything.
Together they explore the Arctic wastelands, skating on the and hiking about the frozen lake.
Finally, in Coot Club the action shifts to the many small waterways of the Norfolk Broads. Here Dick and Dorothea
are spending the spring holidays with their mother's old schoolteacher, Mrs. Barrable, aboard a small yacht,
the Teasel. They meet the members of the Coot Club [Tom of the Titmouse, sisters Bess
(Port) and Nell (Starbord) of the Flash, and Bill, Pete and Joe of the Death and Glories] a
group devoted to the protecting local birds and sailing about the riverways. When Tom sets a boat of
rowdies (hullabaloos) adrift from beside a coots' nest they are disturbing, he makes himself a hunted man.
Dodging the "Hullabaloos" takes the Callums, the Teasel, Tom and others on an adventuresome
trip through the waterways of Norfolk.
Besides the quasi-absolute freedom the children have (though their mother does get concerned when accidents
happen), they have a wonderful imagination, seeing exotic locations and adventures in the Nature around them,
The children are clearly of a social class to be able to afford a summer in the Lake District and sailboats and
so on, but it neither defines the children nor the books. The children are, however, very very British, pausing for
tea, uttering things like "Jolly good!" and have an inordinate knowledge of sailing terminology. Among some of the
most wonderful aspects of the books is that the children are generally good, befriending each other with a sense
of fair-play, apologizing and being forgiven when they make a mistake.
Lest you think they're all namby-pamby goody-two-shoes kids, they're not, but they're more the strong silent
types, and certainly in Peter Duck the boy Bill they pick up at sea after he escapes the pirates' ship is
severely beaten as is the old sailor Peter Duck himself, but this is all part of dealing with what life present
one. And worse than a pirate is what Blackett's dreaded great aunt can be! | ||||||||||
Georges Dodds is a research scientist in vegetable crop physiology, who for close to 25 years has read and collected close to 2000 titles of predominantly pre-1950 science-fiction and fantasy, both in English and French. He writes columns on early imaginative literature for WARP, the newsletter/fanzine of the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and maintains a site reflecting his tastes in imaginative literature. |
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