Pigeon Post

It's the Swallows' third summer in the Lakes, and once again Ransome is faced with the challenge of not writing Swallows and Amazons again. This time the reasoning is that the rather scatter-brained Mrs Blackett is sole responsible adult in charge of all eight children. Uncle Jim and the other parents are all otherwise engaged — Dick and Dorothea seem to be having a particularly bad year for seeing their parents, with four holidays away on their own and the rest of the year at boarding school. As she's also supervising the redecoration of the house at Beckfoot, Mrs B decides that it would be unwise to allow them to go off to camp on the island, so they have to think of something less dangerous. So they come up with gold-mining...

This show more idea works rather better than you might expect. As others have said, this is one of the highspots of the Swallows and Amazons series. Practically no sailing, but a lot of incident and variety. There's a comic misunderstanding at the core of the plot, and Ransome is careful not to give away what it is (of course, you'll see it coming if you've read the book before, so it's not quite as much fun to re-read as some of the others). There's a mysterious stranger who gives a John Buchan/Riddle of the Sands flavour to the book, with a lot of clandestine observation and scout-work on the moors (in a very Buchanish touch, the children know the man only as "squashy hat").

Ransome takes advantage of having the full set of eight children to work with by bringing out a few of the more obscure characters and putting John and Nancy in the background a bit. Dick is definitely the key character this time, all-too-conscious of how heavily the others rely on his inevitably somewhat patchy technical knowledge of metallurgy and geology. Titty has a memorable chapter to herself as well, and Roger gets plenty to do: he's not just the random element of chaos that he is reduced to in many of the books, but a believable small boy we can identify with. Even the infuriatingly-competent Susan gets to display her human side a few times.

The pigeons turn out to be a bit less important to the story than we think they're going to be, but they provide a bit of comedy. They provide a bit of a puzzle, too. Playing at being pirates is not very surprising behaviour for a tomboyish, rural, middle-class girl like Nancy, with plenty of access to boats and to adventure stories, but in British culture pigeon-keeping is something very strongly associated with urban, working-class men. You could easily imagine that Ransome knew people who kept pigeons when he was a child in Leeds, but it's very odd that Nancy's uncle should think of giving her a pigeon. But we shouldn't complain about it, it makes for a great story. show less

One of my favorite Swallows and Amazons books. My family couldn't stop reading it. It's funny, suspenseful (in a totally non-scary way), and has an ending that surprised me. (My husband saw the surprise coming; maybe I'm just dense?) The premise sounds kind of dull but the story is riveting.

I re-read this after watching an episode of Time Team where they were digging on Elizabethan mine workings in the Lake District - and heard in my head Ransome's Slater Bob talking about "Queen Elizabeth's Dutchies" (i.e. the German or Deutsch miners). Here the Swallows, Amazons and Ds have to camp ashore for the beginning of the holidays so take up prospecting for gold (if they find it, they hope that the Amazon's uncle Captain Flint will stay home to mine it instead of heading overseas). The adventures are real and the children individual and resourceful in the face of real problems and dangers... I love this book and recommend it for anyone, adult or child.

A somewhat awkward book, though the adventures are real - some of them only real because of the stories they made up, though. Poor Timothy. The mining is cute; the camp, and Titty's Well, are great. Going through the Old Level - yeah. The youngsters don't care much, but John got a real shock - thank goodness they made it over the ridge in time. And good thing Susan didn't know until afterward. The whole thing with the metal is kind of weird - Dick being more blinkered than usual, never checking to see what else it might be. He really shows his youth. And then the fire to end it all, with real risks and not made-up ones. Oh, and the pigeons and their bell - not a major factor in the story, though necessary to let them go. Overall, as I show more said, a bit awkward - not a favorite, though it's enjoyable enough. show less

Another fun escapade with these young explorers. This time around, the children are prospectors, determined to discover gold before the Amazons' uncle comes home from South America. The plot is a little slow to get going (the well-meaning "natives" keep getting in the way); once the children settle into their camp, however, the action proceeds apace with spirit and humor. (There's a great subplot involving an unknown visitor Uncle Jim has sent on ahead, and the expectations that build up as the visitor keeps failing to appear.) Everything ends well as usual -- if not quite the way anybody expects -- and the children help out in a major way when not-so-natural disaster strikes. I love fantasy and magic, but it's also nice to read stories show more where regular Muggles can have adventures and even save the day every once in a while. show less

The scene is again the Lake District, during the summer holidays, where a drought has caused lake levels to sink, and fires to have started. The Callums and Walkers are staying at Beckfoot, awaiting their parents to travel to the lake, and camping in the garden as Mrs Blackett has the house redecorated. The Blacketts' Uncle Jim is returning home after unsuccessful prospecting in South America, and, inspired, Nancy decides that before he arrives, all the explorers will have found gold for him.

The story thus set up, the children explore the fells, encounter an enemy, move camp, prospect for gold, almost get buried in a mine working, and narrowly avert disaster. As with all Ransome's books, it's written in spare prose, and rarely a word is show more wasted. The description of the fire, and the desperate efforts to tackle the flames, are vivid, and give a sense of real danger. In my opinion, one of the best children's books ever written. show less

Cracking good story that keep you turning the pages wondering when the armadillo will arrive. The Swallows, Amazons and D's take up gold prospecting in a dry summer, cause the grown-ups no end of worry and perfect pigeon messaging. Has my favourite ever pigeon joke of all time in it.