Sophie Neville, star of the original Swallows and Amazons film and author of The Making of Swallows and Amazons, writes about the letters that she has received about how the film has changed people’s lives, and how some of these will appear in the 3rd edition of her e-book The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons in time for the film’s 50th anniversary in 2024.

Movies are made for watching. In the end, they belong to those who love them and it is wonderful to hear of the impact they have had on people’s lives.

The screenwriter Caleb Ranson wrote: “You’ve no idea how thrilling this is for me to hear from you. Swallows & Amazons was a life-changing cinema visit for me, setting me off on my path writing and producing TV and films. I played the soundtrack album every night for years. And I love your book by the way: I bought it when it first came out.”

Paddy Heron of Children in Read describes the movie Swallows and Amazons (1974) as ‘a national treasure of a film.’

Nigel Seymour wrote to say, “that the original film has an ambience which cannot be calculated.  It sits in time, yet it is as fresh as if it was made yesterday!” An international musician today, Nigel believes, “It possesses a simplicity of life we’ve lost, so watching it is a refreshing reminder of great days… a journey into another dimension and another world steeped with love and belonging adventure and moral understanding, which is shared between a family and accepted. The characters are bought to life almost as if they are an infinite, integral part of the immortality of the story, each giving that picturesque understanding the viewer finds impossible to explain. After watching this film one arrives back in real time with a resounding bang! We wonder why such a simple story can create such an iconic understanding. Why watching this film can make you feel happy, totally complete and yearning to return again and savour that wonderful eternal landscape we have all learned to grow   and love as the lakes.”

Tracy Kenny from Ketts Books wrote: “Swallows and Amazons is a firm family favourite in our house and for a while there, your movie was the only film my eldest would watch!”

The author Catherine Randall said: “I lived and breathed Swallow & Amazons including your film. I knew nearly all the words!”

The fan letters continue to arrive, each one treasured.

Nigel Young writes: “Swallows and Amazons is one of those films which sets itself in that timeless space no-one can quite fathom or understand, almost verging on ‘Immortality’. I’m sure no-one at the time working on it ever thought the film would achieve the cult status it seems to enjoy today. You are possibly smiling when you read this, but it’s a true reflection of a film which is more than a film, and touches on those beautiful innocent moments and times which have been lost forever.”

Charles H Ball wrote: “Swallows and Amazons was instrumental in helping me through a very stressful period of my life… I will be obtaining The Making of Swallows and Amazons and no doubt many more of your other publications in due course.”

C.H.B. left a review of The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons writing: “the feelings of anybody who would have loved to have had the opportunity of actually taking part in the film are summed up by Nancy Blackett when the D’s are explaining how they managed to get to the North Pole a day earlier than planned:

‘And you two came by yourselves and got here through that blizzard?’ said Nancy. ‘However did you find the Pole?’

‘The blizzard helped really,’ said Dorothea.

‘We were sailing,’ said Dick………..’And we’ve gone and opened the stores,’ said Dorothea. ‘And eaten some of them. You see we lost our food when the sledge turned over and the mast broke…’

‘Capsized!’ cried Nancy. ‘Mast gone by the board! Oh. you lucky, lucky beasts!’

Some of us will forever envy the lucky children who had the opportunity of a lifetime.”

I hope to include all these quotes in the 3rd Edition of The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons, to be brought out for the 50th Anniversary of the film’s release in April 2024.

Do leave a comment here or write in, letting me know what the film meant to you or how it affected your life.

Sophie Neville’s e-book The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons is available from all e-book distributors, including Amazon Kindle.

Her story The Making of Swallows and Amazons is available from the Nancy Blackett Shop, in support of the work of the Nancy Blackett Trust.

The original version of this story was published by Sophie Neville in January 2021.