A marathon reading of Arthur Ransome’s story “Pigeon Post” is to be staged in the Coniston Coppermines valley at the end of September.

Chris Routledge. Credit: University of Liverpool.

The event is being organised by writer and lecturer Chris Routledge, in association with The Arthur Ransome Trust, who also staged a similar reading of “Swallows and Amazons” on the shore of Coniston Water in September 2017.

As with that reading, all Arthur Ransome fans are invited to sign up to each read a chapter of “Pigeon Post”, the sixth book in the “Swallows and Amazons” series. Arthur Ransome won the inaugural Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for “Pigeon Post”, which sees the children from the earlier books exploring and searching for gold in the Coniston fells during a hot dry summer.

The “Swallows and Amazons” marathon reading was a huge success, when Sophie Neville, the actress who starred as Titty Walker in the original 1974 film version of “Swallows and Amazons”, was joined by Hannah Jayne Thorp, who played Peggy Blackett in the 2016 film, as well as novelist Ruth Sutton, actor Matt Addis, interior designer Alison Tordoff, Becky Heaton Cooper, director of Grasmere’s Heaton Cooper Studio, and author Christina Hardyment.

Coppermines, Coniston. Photo © Peter Trimming (cc-by-sa/2.0).

An additional marathon reading of another Ransome story, “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea“, was held at Pin Mill in October 2017, with readers including Griff Rhys Jones and Libby Purves, organised by the Nancy Blackett Trust.

The marathon reading of “Pigeon Post” will take place outside the Coppermines Youth Hostel on Sunday 29th September. You can register your interest in reading a chapter from the book by completing this form.