Several of the members had read Swallows and Amazons with their children as it had been written specifically with children in mind and this recalled a lot of good memories. The plot of the story was based around a family who had travelled for their holiday to stay in a farmhouse – Mother with baby Vicky and Nannie, John the eldest, Susan, Titty and Roger. Father had stayed at home working but his permission was sought in order that they may sail the boat and camp on a little distant island. John appeared to be very competent with his sailing and guided the others on their adventures, which they had a plenty. Each morning found one or more of the children rowing across to a local farm to collect milk, bread and at times delicious cake. Both the farmer and his wife kept a lookout for the children. Two other youngsters joined in the fun Nancy and Peggy – both again being great sailors with their little yacht. Camp fires, the catching and cooking of fish took up a great deal of their time but did not deter them from finding stolen treasure and helping to solve a robbery from a locally moored boat – all ended well leaving everyone looking forward to meeting up again the following year for more sailing adventures.
The whole atmosphere of the story brought back to us the time when life appeared carefree and we all felt that life many years ago was mostly a safe place for children to play – with their parents quite happy to let them explore. The roads were not so busy – especially if you lived in the countryside nearly everyone knew and looked out for each other. Personally, I remember that there were parts of the beach upon we were not allowed to venture and again should the sea begin to turn rough, the local fishermen would call us out of the water, although to us it looked quite inviting. All in all a very warm read.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI 