A homage to Swallows, Amazons and a girl with a rather rude name!
36 Islands: In Search Of The Hidden Wonders Of The Lake District... And A Few Other Things Too
Robert Twigger W&N £20 ★★★★★
Robert Twigger grew up in the 1970s obsessed with Swallows And Amazons, the derring-do inter-war children’s classic by Arthur Ransome set in the Lake District. Kitted out with nothing more than a spirit of adventure and a compass, Roger, Susan and the unfortunately named Titty (more of that later) splashed around having adventures, unencumbered by adult supervision or the need to get home for tea.
Determined to rekindle a bit of excitement in his Covid-marooned life, middle-aged travel writer Twigger sets out to follow in their footsteps on some of the 36 islands in the Lake District.
The islands in Coniston, Grasmere and Derwent Water are all scrubby little hillocks that at some point were cut off from the shoreline and have remained free-standing ever since. Camping on them isn’t usually allowed, which naturally makes them catnip to Twigger, who arrives on a pack raft (like a fancy giant lilo) and pitches tent.
Into his charming, pottering narrative Twigger braids an account of the eccentric Ransome and his reason for creating the world of Swallows And Amazons (there were 12 books in all) in the first place.
Far from being a hearty, boy-scout type, Ransome had been bullied at school for being a wimp. He spent the rest of his life making up for it, though, by becoming a Russian correspondent for The Guardian. His peak experience involved bedding, and later marrying, Trotsky’s secretary.
Returning to Britain, he retreated to his Lake District childhood by creating the Walker children, who were the sort of sporty, resilient types he never was. He modelled them on the children of a doctor friend. When those children reached their teens and started behaving in ways that were different from the imaginary Walkers, Ransome cut them off and denied that they had played any part in the creation of his best-selling imaginary world.
Twigger intersperses his narrative with a series of hand-drawn maps, giving his book a wonderfully homespun feel. He keeps his lyricism within bounds, preferring instead to tell funny stories about his failure to find parking spots in the Lake District.
As for why Ransome decided to call one of his heroines ‘Titty’, Twigger comes up with the explanation that in the 1930s, it just didn’t sound smutty. When all was said and done, those really were simpler times.