Swallows, Amazons and the wonders of childhood
Historian Michael Smith has just published Sir Gawain And The Green Knight (Unbound £16.99).
His translation brings the Arthurian romance alive for a modern audience.
Dad-of-three Michael lives in Hertfordshire.
COMING from Warrington in Cheshire at a time when the town was famous for vodka and rugby league, it was always wonderful to get away to the country.
Wales, the Lake District, the Peaks and Scotland were where we went. With the exception of Scotland, the hills of all these places were visible, just, from my boyhood town.
They still hold a special place in my heart; one place in particular.
A few years ago, when our son Hector was young, my wife Nicky and I visited Coniston Water in the Lake District with the kids.
The plan was to see Holly Howe farm – scene of Swallows and Amazons – and visit some of the places mentioned in Arthur Ransome’s books.
That brief stay led to us booking a week on Coniston the following year at the other end of the lake to the town. It was quiet and the children could take rowing boats out on the water.
Hector and a friend would have days out rowing in the reeds towards the mouth of the “Amazon” and then – wonder of wonders – the mile and half to “Wild Cat Island”.
It was such a special time watching childhood at its best – boys and girls living out adventures as navigators, explorers and pirates.
The children loved those golden hours among the heather and rocks, crossing streams as champions of the world.
I have two really special moments from those holidays in the Lakes. I’ll never forget when we first took Hector to see Ransome’s grave. As we were leaving he paused for a moment, picked a daffodil, and ran back to place it on the great man’s resting place.
Several years later we visited that special holiday cottage one last time with Hector, now a teenager, and visited Ransome’s grave again.
On the eve of his leaving for university, it felt like Christopher Robin talking to Pooh in the last chapter of the House at Pooh Corner.
That beautiful moment still brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye.
It was the end of childhood.