The Enid Blyton Society

Hallo Atims,

Welcome to the Enid Blyton Society forums. It is nice to know that Winsome is still around after all these years. Is she just like the pictures of the Teasel in "Coot Club"? If she has no engine like Teasel, you will building up your muscles with all that quanting. I often go on holiday to the Broads (shore-based, I'm not terribly boaty) so I will keep an eye out for her in the future.

Please post a picture sometime if you can.

Thanks,

Kate

P.S. Michael, Arthur Ransome's books are adventures, "The Big Six" is the only mystery story. Try them, begin with "Swallows and Amazons", they are long books, slower to start than a Blyton story, but once they get going they are hard to put down.

P.P.S. I don't count myself an expert on Ransome, Blyton or anything!

Hello Atims, I'm just wondering what 'Winsome' is in connection with Arthur Ransome. My parents belong to subscribe to some kind of Arthur Ransome club and receive a regular newsletter, but when I mentioned it to them, they had no idea what it is.

Michael, I've read about half of Arthur Ransome's 'Swallow and Amazon' books. I would describe them mainly as a group of children just having fun camping and sailing, and although enjoyable in their own way, I've always found them a bit dull compared to Enid Blyton's adventure stories. I also find I sometimes get a bit bogged down with all the technical sailing terms. However I think they are worth giving another go if you fancy reading something a bit different. I have to say I enjoy the fact that they were written mainly in the 1930s and haven't as far as I can tell been modernised in the way Enid Blyton's books are. If you want to read books where adults still smoke and small boys wear 'knickerbockers' and girls still tend to do all the cooking, then you should enjoy them.

Hi katharine, I'll reference Kate Marys previous post...

You are quite right Ransome did cruise the Broads before writing the book, according to Christina Hardyment in "Arthur Ransome and Capt. Flint's Trunk", in 1931 he and his wife hired the yacht 'Welcome' from Herbert woods yard at Potter Heigham and a friend Ted Scott (then editor of the Manchester Guardian) and his son hired her sister ship ' Winsome'. The Ransomes returned in 1933 hiring the yacht "Fairway". On this cruise they moored alongside the Thames barge 'Pudge of Rochester' at Beccles and talked to the skipper and his wife, they also met an old fisherman who explained 'babbing for eels' (see "The Big Six"). I think many of the scenes in the books must have been inspired by incidents on the Ransomes' Broads holidays.'

Winsome is a very beautiful broads sailing cruiser, built in 1927 with a lifting cabin roof and two berths inside. Her rigging has changed over the years. Shes a gorgeous sailing boat but shes showing her years. She's having her hog replaced and a few rotten planks, some decking repaired and a couple of portholes need some tlc. However... Hopefully Kate, she'll be back sailing on the broads by summer 2014. I'll get some photos of her as you request. No engine now, but thankfully she powers nicely on a small electric outboard through locks, so no big muscles required!

Hallo again, Atims

I thought there were no locks on the Broads, will you be taking her on other waterways? I love the Norfolk Broads, inspired by Ransome and other books such as Gladys Mitchell's "Holiday River", Roy Clark's "Black Sailed Traders" and the funniest book I have ever read Michael Green's "The Art of Coarse Sailing"

There is a lovely nostalgic website devoted to the Broads, it has not been updated recently but it is still worth a look:
http://postcardsfromthenorfolkbroads.net/Home_Page.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kate

Atims, thanks for the explanation, I hadn't seen Kate Mary's earlier post. My family and I have an annual trip to Sheringham by train and we always pass Wroxham on the way - maybe I'll be able to spot Winsome next year?

Winsome sounds beautiful, Atims.

Katharine wrote:Michael, I've read about half of Arthur Ransome's 'Swallow and Amazon' books. I would describe them mainly as a group of children just having fun camping and sailing, and although enjoyable in their own way, I've always found them a bit dull compared to Enid Blyton's adventure stories.

I too feel that Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' books are quite different from Enid Blyton's adventure books. The stories are not as fast-paced and dramatic (or at least the dramatic incidents are rather different in nature), but they are about spirited children who go off exploring on their own and get into difficulties. To read them is to experience an old-fashioned childhood of glorious freedom and make-believe in the countryside.

My mother really likes the Swallows and Amazons books as most of them are quite believable, certainly for the time they were written. Kids probably could have gone off by themselves for several days camping and had great fun making up games of pirates etc. Actually Pigeon Post with the gold prosepectors is proably something I'd have liked to do myself.

Hello - having just read four Swallows and Amazons books (Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Peter Duck & Winter Holiday) and very much enjoyed them all, I am considering buying the fifth in the series: Coot Club. However - having just read on the Wikipedia page, dedicated to the series, I have learnt the familiar Swallows and Amazons characters - John, Susan, Titty, Roger, Peggy and Nancy don't even feature in it, instead the Callums, introduced in Winter Holiday, take the leading roles. I realise, that the two books (the other being 'The Big Six') that don't feature the better known characters of this series are several peoples favourites, as said in this thread, however, I have to say Dorathea and Dick aren't the best liked characters I have ever read about. Is it worth missing this title out - or it is it a good read?

Coot Club and The Big Six are my favourite books in the series (with the possible exception of Winter Holiday). Even though the Swallows and Amazons are not in them, the two Broads books are an essential part of the saga. There are some excellent new characters; Tom Dudgeon, the twins Port and Starboard and the wonderful Death and Glories. You will miss a great book if skip Coot Club Poppy.

I've read the first seven Swallows and Amazons books and Coot Club is my favourite.
As Kate Mary said, there's some great characters in Coot Club and you'd be really missing out on an enjoyable story if you choose not to read it.

Thanks very much, Kate and Danger Bird. I finished Winter Holiday last night, and almost immediately faniced picking up another title. I'm off to buy Coot Club off eBay.

(Not bad at £2.99 each - new)

Just a quick thank you for your advice, Kate and Danger Bird, I am currently very much enjoying Coot Club. There is some wonderful new characters I have discovered, an enjoyable plot and a fantastic read, overall.

Poppy, I'm glad you are enjoying the book. I haven't read all of them, but out of the ones I have read, I'd say that Coot Club is probably my favourite.

I've been slowly making my way through the series since reading Enid In Swallowdale in Journal 56(?).

I think I commented on one of the other threads that I really struggled with Swallows and Amazons. I found it a slow, plodding read, with little to grip the reader. However, once I'd become to Ransome's slow nature I really started to enjoy the series.

I'm currently on Coot Club which is the strongest in the series so far. As a child I spent many a happy summer on Oulton Broad and in Beccles so with the book visiting many familiar places (The Wherry is still in Oulton and was where my Dad had his first job!) it has quickly established itself as a book I feel very close too.

I agree that Coot Club is a very enjoyable read as you feel as if you're journeying with the characters, though Winter Holiday is my favourite of the early titles. You've got Pigeon Post and We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea coming up next, Nick - both strong stories which I like a lot. I haven't yet read Secret Water, The Big Six, Missee Lee or Great Northern?