#Arthur Ransome

[novelmonger]

Fortnight of Books, Day 1

Overall - best book read in 2024?

This is always such an impossible question to answer. I think I might just have to go with One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp, purely because of the way it's changed and improved the way I look at the world. It's a book about gratitude - not just for the nice, happy things, but also for the hard things. Since reading this book and beginning a list of one thousand gifts of my own (as of this writing, I'm at 377), I find myself much more often focusing on joy and gratitude, actively looking for things to thank God for, rather than either complaining about things or ignoring them. I've even begun thanking God for things like back pain or aspects of my physical appearance I don't like, and even though that doesn't change anything in me physically, it does wonders for my perspective. So for that reason, even though sometimes I took issue with the way she wrote, I'd call this the best book I read this year.

Best series you discovered in 2024?

.....did I discover any series this year? I don't feel like I did. I mean, maybe Swallows and Amazons, but I've only read the first one, and I actually don't feel any inclination to read the rest, if I'm being honest ^^' So I'm not sure if that counts....

Best reread of the year?

That would have to be Dracula! I participated in Dracula Daily this year, which was lots of fun. It really enhanced the tension of the story, getting chunks of story and then waiting in suspense for weeks sometimes, only getting dribbles here and there while waiting to see if the characters we like will escape the clutches of an evil monster. I've read Dracula before, and so I remembered at least the broad strokes of the story, but it was a really fun way to revisit the story. I don't think it's something I'd do every year or anything like that, but I'm glad I did it this year.

[billlaotian]

[captainsvscaptains]

Round 1 Part 3 Poll 2

Propaganda

Nancy is the capable and adventurous captain of the dinghy Amazon, which she crews along with her sister and ship's mate Peggy under a pirate flag.

Queen. Kelly accidentally started a religion

[mooncustafer]

Somebody about ten years back wrote a novel’s worth of fanfic for Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, and I’ve spent much of the day reading it

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

arthur ransome is actually so funny though like i grew up reading swallows & amazons but the copies i had as a kid didn't have any biographical info about him really so he was just. that guy who wrote swallows & amazons

so you can imagine my surprise about ten years later:

"what do you mean arthur ransome witnessed the russian revolution. what do you mean he married trotsky's secretary"

[theyre-gay-because-i-say-so]

Today's LGBT+ Headcanon is;

Dorothea Callum from Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome-Bisexual

Requested by @absolutelynotclassicusernam-blog

Status: Alive

[gailyinthedark]

I just found out this is a thing and it's making me so happy

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Picts & the Martyrs | Author: Arthur Ransome | Publisher: Vintage (2015)

[jstor]

Winter in poems ❄️

"In a fall of snow, the first of the season, they stand and dream and watch the footprints disappear in the will of heaven; absorb the sounds of water-objects drown in a deeper music, and shiver as light breaks in their hearts and something vastly woeful hangs at their eyes." – Arthur Gregor, "First Snow, Brooklyn Harbor"

It's snowing at JSTOR HQ! Curl up with a blanket and a warm beverage, because we're sharing 10 poems with you that capture the spirit of winter. This season is approached distinctly by each poet, some taking a pensive tone and others leaning into seasonal cheer.

We hope these poems inspire you to create some winter art of your own!

"The Winter Seasons" by Richard Frost

"Winter Evening" by Alexander Pushkin (transl. Eugene Mark Kayden)

"Snow" by Lucy Larcom

"Winter Poem" by Margan Dutton

"First Snow, Brooklyn Harbor" by Arthur Gregor

"First Light, Late Winter" by Floyd Skloot

"Winter Remembered" by John Crowe Ransom

"Last Winter" by H.D.

"A Winter's Tale" by Dylan Thomas

"A Suite for Winter" by Francis Fergusson

Image: A Group of Reindeer Searching for Food in a Snowy Forest. Wellcome Collection.

[askthehouseoffandoms]

Tierlist

Just to make things clear on how I feel about these characters. I like them. But I like some more than others

[novelmonger]

Book Review: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Recommended by @valiantarcher for the 2024 Book Rec Exchange

Premise: The Walker family (sans Father, who is out to sea) is on holiday at a lake, and the four children have been begging to be allowed to sail to a small island and camp there all on their own. Once they receive permission, the adventures begin! Not only do they get to enjoy sailing the open seas and living on a deserted island, but they also encounter pirates, natives, buried treasure, and shipwrecks, all before they have to go home at the end of the summer.

Thoughts: I had the weirdest sense of deja vu in the first few chapters of this book. I think I must have attempted reading this at some point when I was a kid, but then got bored and never finished. Because this definitely seems like the kind of story I would have done that with when I was the target age ^^' Too many nautical terms, not enough actual pirates or kidnappings or wish-granting turtles. And I hadn't yet established my First Hundred Pages rule, so I can absolutely see myself giving up before things really got interesting. (For me, that would be when the Amazons show up.)

But reading it now as an adult, I thought it was delightful ^_^ The kids all acted just like real children, reminding me of games I'd play with my siblings, though the Walker children were much more sophisticated and had more complex ideas of a good time than we did! (For one thing, I don't think any of us had any ambitions of sailing or camping on our own, ever. And we couldn't have managed it, especially not at their ages!) I loved how seriously the narrative took their imaginations, because that's just how it is when you're playing pretend. The story you're pretending can shift and flex, but you still don't want anything breaking the suspension of disbelief if at all possible. (Thus the way my brother and I would always have our LEGO armies have a lunch-time truce when we were called away in the middle of battle.)

I think my favorite character was the unfortunately named Titty. (I assumed, all the way through reading the book, that this was a nickname for Letitia that, like the name Dick, has taken on an unfortunate meaning in this day and age, but upon further research I discovered that it comes from a children's book called Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse, which was the favorite of the real girl Titty was based on, whose name was Mavis. I hunted up Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse, and...what. even. I know times have changed since 1930, but...really??? Why would any child in their right mind like that story at all? Let alone pick it as their favorite?! x.x) Titty was the one who reminded me most of myself, other than the way Susan mothered her siblings (what is it with Susans and being the mother of the group?). The turns her imagination took her, the desire to have her own private adventures, the way her heart swelled with the drama of things...yes, I could see myself in that. She also kind of reminded me of Katharine from Edward Eager's books, for similar reasons ^_^

All in all, I found this book highly enjoyable, and even inspiring! It makes me want to recapture some of that child-like complete abandonment to the world of make-believe. It even encouraged me on a day I was feeling very overwhelmed by very adulty problems, because reading the book made me want to find ways I could pretend something more interesting and meaningful was going on, to relieve the oppression of Reality. A very enjoyable book, and I'm happy to have read it.

[ifreakingloveroyals]

19 July 2016 | Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall meets cast members of the TV show 'Doc Martin' Ian McNeice, Jessica Ransom and Caroline Catz at Nathan Outlaw's restaurant during a visit to Port Isaac in Port Isaac, England. (c) Arthur Edwards - WPA Pool/Getty Images

[hairtusk]

slowly but surely building up a collection of vintage editions of my childhood favourites, so that one day, i can give them to my future daughter :')

[randomowlscreeching]

the fact that Nancy is the only swallows and amazons character to have her own Wikipedia page is honestly so in character

[mr-and-mr-pendragon]

Great analysis! Italian chef's kiss level post

I have to add this, as part of Gwen's loyalty to Arthur and generally being lovey dovey with him (which was in the context of this all-or-nothing situation as beautifully laid out above) Gwen also had to care for Uther when Uther was sick! That's the guy who had executed Gwen's father! I find this the worst offence. And not once did Arthur consider how that must feel to Gwen!

This angle is not presented in the show, I think we're just meant to believe that Gwen simply loves Arthur enough (to look past her father's execution? are we meant to forget about it by that episode?), that she's genuinely such a helpful person as to care for Uther.

But all the time I felt that Gwen, as much as she was fond of Arthur, had been cornered into going along with his every whim. Be a secret girlfriend? Ok. Be courted? Ok. Care for sick Uther and pretend that you love doing that? Naturally. Be banished even though you were enchanted? Thank fuck she's at least alive, right? After all that, marry Arthur and pretend to have no residual bitterness about anything? That's what a girl's gotta do in a man's world.

It was interesting to me how in season 5 Gwen did show bitterness and her personality was much hardened compared to her s1 self. It must have been a tremendous pressure to be queen; I don't think people around her forgot her steep status rise from one moment to the other.

And the other side of this love triangle cannot be left unmentioned either. Lancelot just fucks off all the time! He loves her and he loves her a lot which she reciprocates, but he doesn't consider her feelings at all. He doesn't ask Gwen what she wants. He just lets Arthur have her, we're sort of led to believe that he does this out of courtesy, realising that Gwen wants Arthur, not him, so he steps aside but is that true? Based on Gwen's reaction in the morning it's not. It just feels like Gwen is treated as a commodity between these two men and since Lancelot doesn't want to shoulder the commitment he lets the higher ranking man have her. I really wanted to see Gwen's story more from her perspective. Something like the episode where she's captured by Morgana - finally it's addressed that these two women have a really complicated history with each other! I wanted more episodes that delve into how Gwen feels...

On Guinevere and her marriage

This was originally written in response to this post, but turned into a very long rant about why BBC’s Guinevere was as much a victim of contract marriage as the Guinevere of legend is, because BBC Merlin is very, very problematic.

Keep reading

[theyre-gay-because-i-say-so]

Today's LGBT+ Headcanon is;

Tom Dudgeon from Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome-Bisexual

Requested by @absolutelynotclassicusernam-blog

Status: Alive