Reviews

• Gripping and funny

  My family of two older elementary girls enjoyed this as much as any read-aloud book we've read. We could hardly put it down. Pigeon Post reunites the Swallows, Amazons, and D's, and the characters are well-balanced. Everyone has a role in the group, and their relationships are realistic and interesting. The plot moved along nicely. The surprises indeed surprised us, creating suspense and humor. We've read all the Swallows and Amazons books up to this point chronologically. Coot Club did not capture our imagination, but Pigeon Post is a welcome return to the adventure and fun we know the series for. Hihgly recommended.

• Glorious fun - as enjoyable now as it was forty years ago

  There is very little sailing in this sixth instalment in Arthur Ransome’s marvellous series of books set in the early 1930s and featuring the Swallows and Amazons, together with the Ds. The Walker children and Dick and Dorothea Callum have made their way to the Lake District at the beginning of the summer holidays. The Swallow is not yet available, however, and as the eight children would leave the Amazon heavily overcrowded they have decided instead to explore the High Topps, the moor land overlooking the lake. Nancy and Peggy have been making preparations to explore some of the old abandoned mine working that are scattered all over the moorland, in the belief that they might be able to prospect for gold. Their mother is concerned about them camping too far away from home to be in regular contact, which is where the pigeons come in. The Amazons have acquired three homing pigeons which they will take with them, despatching one each day with a message, and then sending someone back home each fourth day to retrieve them and collect further stores. An added complication is the prolonged drought that has beset the area, leaving the moors as dry as tinder, and bring the threat of heathland fires. Ransome develops the story brilliantly. He clearly understands children’s approach to life and he never patronises them., The prose is simple and lucid, and he captures the relationships between the different children with great facility. The children are immensely resourceful, but in a perfectly plausible manner. That is, perhaps, one aspect of the book that dates the novel. No-one seems to question the propriety of allowing a group of eight children to camp unattended out on the moors. While their ages are never explicitly stated, I imagine that Roger, the youngest, was probably nine or ten, while Nancy and John, the oldest two, are probably twelve or thirteen at most. In Britain in 2016, social services would be intervening, and their families would be under investigation for neglect. The novel does demonstrate Ransome’s own imagination, and his deep understanding of the way that children’s imagination works. All of the Swallows, Amazons and the Ds allow themselves to be absorbed into the world that they have created, in which the local village becomes ‘Rio’, corned beef becomes ‘pemmican’ and bottles of ginger beer become ‘grog’. Similarly, once they are camping on the High Topps they become utterly immersed in the world of prospecting, defending their discovering and terrified of rivals ‘jumping’ their claim. Ransome’s characters were clearly all very well read, and raised on adventure stories of the same calibre as his own works. It is well over forty years since I first read this book. At that time, I thought it was the best in this series, and one of my all-time favourites. I was gratified to find that those views still hold true.

• Another wonderful Swallows & Amazon’s book

  Working my way through the whole series of Swallows & Amazon. Don’t recall reading Pigeon Post when I was younger and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of outdoor camping, exploring and other adventures. A great read for children and adults of all ages.

• A "children's" book for all ages

  This Arthur Ransome tale is again in the Lake District, but the main theme centers about the disused mines in the region. Dick and Dorothea (and the others!) go prospecting for gold and and find veins of quartz in one old mine. High school chemistry is introduced (with the help of Nancy's Uncle Jim) to show (alas) that the shiny metallic particles are copper pyrites, not gold. All the supporting sailing and exploring, always so well portrayed by Ransome can be found in this classical story about adventurous youngsters.

• No sailing, but still a great read.

  The fact that i enjoyed this book despite it lacking much about sailing is testament to Arthur Ransom's skill as a writer and the way he has developed the characters throughout the Swallows and Amazons series of books. One criticism I do have is addressed to those responsible for preparing the ebook format, that is that the drawings and diagrams (a significant component of the stories), are very poorly reproduced. In fact they are largely unintelligible so as to be very frustrating for the reader. And as Amazon are charging "top dollar" for the titles, I would expect more. No criticism the author or original publishers is intended. One star off for this!

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