Swallows and Amazons

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

The novel’s six young characters live for imaginative play, never using the word “pretend” in the context of their games and instead stepping effortlessly into the roles they are playing. While friendly adults can participate, the world of imagination belongs firmly to children, and imaginative play goes hand in hand with freedom from the world of adults. Permission to camp on Wild Cat Island is the catalyst for their transformation, as they become naval seamen signing their “Ship’s Articles” and fully embracing their imaginary world.

The setting figures strongly in enabling the children’s games of being sailors, pirates, and explorers—sometimes all at once. The island, the two sailboats, and the lake provide the Walkers and Blacketts with freedom to play far from the world of the dull and conventional adults. As soon as they are granted permission to camp on the island without adult supervision, their imaginations are fired up, and they are transformed into naval seamen signing their Ship’s Articles.

It is a convention in children’s fantasies of Ransome’s era, such as J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1911) and P.