Although Nancy Blackett is a bit older than 90, she wasn’t always known by that name – and it was on this day 90 years ago that Arthur Ransome was introduced to this Hillyard 7-tonner which he would describe as his “best little boat”. He changed her name and ended up immortalising her in what […]
As the 50th Anniversary year of the original Swallows and Amazons film draws to a close, Sophie Neville looks back at the making of the film and forward to what still might be half-a-century on… “The smell is just the same.” Suzanna Hamilton began rowing me across Coniston Water from Bank Ground Farm, taking us […]
A marathon reading of Arthur Ransome’s classic story Swallowdale is happening at Windermere Jetty Museum on June 24th & 25th, and you can now sign up to participate in it. Swallowdale follows on from the great adventure of Swallows and Amazons and finds the brave crew of the Swallow, plus one parrot, beginning another summer […]
Voyage North, the seventh and final book in Julia Jones’s Ransome-inspired Strong Winds series is out now. Donny finds himself on the superyacht of a Russian oligarch, heading towards the Arctic Circle with a canister of toxic waste. But will this bring him closer to answers to the questions that have troubled him ever since […]
Swallow, the iconic dinghy that starred in the original film of Swallows and Amazons is currently on display at the Southampton International Boat Show, greeting families as they arrive, while Sophie Neville, who played Titty Walker in the film, has been giving talks on filming afloat and how it was made on location in the […]
Sophie Neville tells the tale of the tooth that went missing during the filming of the original Swallows and Amazons film, and how she got it back last year… In May 2021 I spoke to Helen Millican on BBC Radio Cumbria about making the original film of Swallows and Amazons in the Lake District, back […]
The lighthouse tree lantern from the original Swallows and Amazons film still exists, and has an unexpected connection to We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, writes Sophie Neville… I received an interesting series of emails recently from a stonemason called Philip Chatfield: “Hi Sophie, I was watching Swallows and Amazons, the old classic, on […]
A marathon reading of Arthur Ransome’s classic story Winter Holiday is happening at Windermere Jetty on Sunday (30th January). The all-day event has been organised by writer and lecturer Chris Routledge, in association with The Arthur Ransome Trust. He also staged a similar readings of Swallows and Amazons on the shore of Coniston Water in […]
Sophie Neville continues her exploration of new memories to include in the next edition of The Secrets of Making Swallows and Amazons (1974)… The International Movie Database (IMDB) lists Billy Mayerl’s composition Marigold as being included in the original film of Swallows and Amazons. This intrigued me. I looked up the music as I couldn’t […]
Sophie Neville explores more stories to add to the next edition of The Making of Swallows and Amazons… When I was last in the Lake District, I grabbed the chance to climb to the top of Gummer’s Howe to look down on the ‘Great Lake in the North’. Arthur Ransome, who once lived at High […]
Sophie Neville, star of the original Swallows and Amazons film and author of The Making of Swallows and Amazons, reveals more memories and anecdotes that 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. Many people have fond memories of watching the original movie of Swallows […]
To mark the 90th birthday of Arthur Ransome’s yacht Nancy Blackett, her owner the Nancy Blackett Trust is offering free copies of Arthur Ransome’s We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea to local schools in Suffolk. The book, part of his Swallows and Amazons series, features the Goblin, identical to the Nancy Blackett, and is […]
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