Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930)

This choice of book prompted at least one member of our group to overcome her phobia of Ransome's books - prompted by her local library's editions of plain hardback editions (without their coloured slip-cases).

The large amount of specialised sailing language (tacking, painters, reefing) for anyone not born and bred on the waters of Lake Coniston can form a barrier to Ransome's books. However, our readers decided (on the whole) that it was worth perservering, and that the story and the characters - as well as Ransome's illustrations - evoked a rich child-centrered world in which imagination and reality weave in and out of one another.

The degree of freedom, independence and responsibility accorded to the children in Swallow and Amazons is remarkable by modern standards. Their father's telegram, permitting them to go on a camping trip on Wild Cat Island in the Lake District reads:

BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON'T DROWN

Ransome's many fans have been inspired by his books to promote exploring, camping, sailing and a more adventurous approach to life.

While he is best remembered as a children's author, Ransome also spent time as a foreign secretary in Russia over the period of the revolution and even married to Trotsky's secretary, Evgenia Shvelina.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (1936)

Born in 1895, Noel Streatfeild was the author of a great many books, the most famous of which is Ballet Shoes.

Ballet Shoes tells the story of three adopted sisters - Pauline, Petrova and Posy - and their training at The Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training.

  

The sometimes sickly-pink modern covers of more recent editions of Ballet Shoes might put off potential readers, but the Fossil girls are presented as rounded characters and the details and worries of their everyday lives are beautifully evoked by Streatfeild.

Group members enjoyed the period detail of the story, and those who had not read it before were pleased to discover that there was more to Ballet Shoes than dance lessons and stage school antics.

Crown of Acorns by Catherine Fisher (2010)

Following our group's enjoyment of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, we decided to try another fantasy writer - this time Catherine Fisher.

Fisher, like Cooper, draws on myth and folklore. Several books are based on Welsh myth and landscape (Fisher was born in Newport), while the Oracle Trilogy blends Ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology to great effect.

Crown of Acorns was chosen by our reading group as it is set here in Bath, and centres around John Wood's beautiful eighteenth century streetscape, The Circus. Fisher splits her narrative between a troubled teenager, who has moved to Bath to start a new life, and a fictionalised account of John Wood (the elder) and the building of The Circus in the mid 1700s.



Fisher's writing is vivid and elegant and her other existence as a poet shows through in her prose.

Our group enjoyed this book, with some favouring one storyline and some another but we all agreed that it made us look at the streets and buildings of Bath anew.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)

The Dark is Rising is the second and best known book in Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence which draws on Arthurian Legend and British folklore.

Cooper studied English at the University of Oxford, one of a group of authors (including Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and Penelope Lively) who were to make a powerful impact on children's literature in the 1960s and 1970s.

This book led to one of the most enthusiatic discussions our group has had, with die-hard Cooper fans and first-time readers all enjoying the story and Cooper's powerful, engaging writing. As with Alan Garner's writing, Cooper conjured up moments of genuine terror in her story and wove a dark, magical tale which is grounded in the English landscape as well as its folklore.

Susan Cooper is still  writing today, with her recent book Ghost Hawk being nominated for the Carnegie Award.

 

Arthur Ransome: BBC Radio 4, Great Lives

Labi Siffre on Arthur Ransome

Matthew Parris invites his guests to nominate the person who they feel is a great life. This week singer-songwriter Labi Siffre discusses the life and work of Arthur Ransome. Siffre says that the Swallows and Amazons books taught him responsibility for his own actions and also a morality that has influenced and shaped him throughout his life.