Winter Holiday (1933)
Synopsis and Further Information on Winter Holiday
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Synopsis Dick and Dorothea Callum, colloquially known as "the D's", have come to stay at Dixon's Farm, on the lake shore above Wild Cat Island, for a week at the end of the winter holidays. Whilst there they see, and soon make contact with, the Swallows and the Amazons, who are themselves staying at their usual "native settlements" at Holly Howe and Beckfoot. The Swallows and Amazons explain that they have planned a winter expedition to the North Pole. Having built an Igloo in the woods above Holly Howe, they are waiting, with increasing desperation, for the "Arctic" to freeze before they have to go back to school. Impressed by Dick and Dorothea's skating ability, they invite the D's to join their expedition. Matters take an unexpected turn when Nancy falls ill with mumps. Owing to health regulations at their respective schools, Peggy, the Swallows and the D's have to remain in quarantine for a month, with Peggy moving from Beckfoot to Holly Howe. Despite her suffering, Nancy is exultant as she realises that there will now be plenty of time for the lake to freeze and the North Pole Expedition to take place in style. Inspired by Nancy's ideas, the rest of the expedition throw themselves into skating practice, experiments with sailing sledges and a move from the Igloo to Captain Flint's houseboat, which is now frozen into the lake and which they rename the Fram. Their routine is briefly upset when Captain Flint returns without warning, but he soon enters into the spirit of the expedition, plotting the final assault on the pole with Nancy. With well-laid plans, Ransome says, their march to the Pole promised to be "the most orderly bit of Arctic exploration in history". But it turns into something far more dramatic when the D's are confused by a signal from Beckfoot and disappear up the lake in a blizzard, forcing the Swallows and Amazons to follow on a relief expedition towards the North Pole in the Arctic night... |
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For a more detailed synopsis of the Swallows and Amazons series, see Approaching Arthur Ransome by Peter Hunt. ISBN 0-224-03288-7. Jonathan Cape, 1991. | ||
| Further Information Winter Holiday is set in the January and February following Swallowdale, ie in 1931 or 1932, depending upon how you choose to resolve the date confusion between the two former books. Ransome drew much of his inspiration for Winter Holiday from his time at school in Windermere in 1895. During the Great Frost that year, Windermere froze from end to end allowing Ransome and his classmates many skating lessons on the lake. The lake froze again in 1929, when Ransome was living nearby and was mulling over the genesis of Swallows and Amazons. Windermere has not frozen to anything like this extent since, presumably due to the gradual rise in global temperatures during the latter part of the 20th century. |
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For a more detailed study of the background to the Swallows and Amazons Series, see Amazon Publication's The Best of Childhood, 2004. The Best of Childhood is available to current TARS Members from the Society Stall. | ||
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