Over the years, I have been suggesting a variety of useful, literary gifts. I brought out this mug featuring a map of the Swallows and Amazons locations on Consiton Water, featuring on the cover of ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons.’ It’s currently available online for about £9.14
I’ve brought out maps in a range of colours.
These t-shirts might be useful for anyone liable to get lost.
I’m selling a variety of garments with my Swallows and Amazons map of Coniston Water on the Redbubble site where you can also find cushion covers.
along with throws, duvet covers and a variety of products from phone covers to laptop sleeves if you fiddle around with the site here
There is a whole selection of socks, which I have listed here
The Nancy Blackett Trust have wooly hats and some great clothing, embroidered with Arthur Ransome’s good little ship. They have an online shop where you can also find yachting caps here
Peter Willis is offering his book ‘A Good Little Ship’ about rescuing Nancy for £10 – a great present for fans of Arthur Ransome.
I love these Swallows and Amazons bookmarks available from sky.n.fern for £2.50. They stock an assortment of unique stationery, which you can see here
I found this spectacle chain decorated with swallows, appropriate for web-footed grandparents, available here
For someone without much space, you can find handmade dolls house miniatures of the ‘Swallows and Amazons’ books here Each tiny book has tunable blank pages 1:12th the original size. I’m not sure if they are paying royalties to the Arthur Ransome Estate but what a compliment to the author. I’d be thrilled if they made miniatures of my books.
There is ‘Swallows and Amazons’ confetti, for sale on this site. Each heart is about one inch in size and can be used for a table decorations.
This year, I bought packs of book-ish Christmas cards from the charity SchoolReaders. They have a variety here.
A subscription to a magazine such as Practical Boat Owner makes a present that comes every month.
Here is something for sailors, which could include a voucher to sail Swallow, the dinghy from the 1974 film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’, which you can find out about here.
Jago Silver has produced a selection of ‘Never Stop Exploring designs. He has a beautiful Ship’s Log sketch book here
and other lovely things designed in Cornwall
Jigsaw puzzles and digitally hand drawn reproductions of StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics film poster designed by Arnaldo Putzu for the original movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974) are available here
Or you could give a copy of the book on how the original film of Swallows and Amazons was made. Large paperbacks can be ordered from Amazon or direct from the publisher here or other stockists listed here.
You can find ‘Swallows and Amazons’ mugs and other gifts here
In November 2021, an anonymous donor bid £251 for a signed first edition of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’. The money raised went directly to BBC Children in Need.
Nearly eight hundred newly published books had been donated to the Children in Read charity auction organised by Paddy Heron, which raised a total of £24,888.
Rare copies of my first edition paperback of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ are often priced highly on Amazon, but when the bidding went above £75, I promised to include a signed first edition hardback of my memoir ‘Funnily Enough’, which includes a brief section on appearing in the film.
When the bidding went above £101, I promised to add my third illustrated memoir about Swallows and Amazons style adventures in Africa, written in letter form.
However, £251 is so very generous that I am off to my archive store to see if I can find a hand-painted map to include in the package.
I drew three different maps showing our film locations in the Lake District and reproduced them in different colour-ways, using one on the cover of my original ebook entitled ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons (1974)’, which is still available on Kindle and any of the ebook outlets.
You can see a selection of my other maps on my Instagram page here
I added these ones to mugs and other useful items available to order from Redbubble They make good presents.
Everyone needs at least one pair of socks for Christmas. I have had the greatest fun designing a whole range, including a few pairs of socks featuring ‘Swallows and Amazons maps here.
The selection of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ themed socks are printed with hand-painted maps of locations from my book, which you can see here
These high-quality goods are manufactured by Red Bubble in Australia who offer excellent service. Please click on the image you like to be taken to the sales portal.
Being custom-made they cost from £12.89 a pair but please use my discount code: CYBER5
Here’s a link to the help center – https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us.
Are you looking for a special Birthday or Christmas present for someone who happens to love the original film of ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974)?
Paddy Heron of Children in Read has a huge number of amazing books listed in a charity auction being held to raise funds for BBC Children in Need. Nearly £21,000 has already been pledged, which is amazing. We have 3 days left to bid, so you have time to chat to the family!
‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ is listed as Lot 298, in the section ‘Film & Television’ above Nigella Lawson’s book ‘Coot, eat, repeat’.
To place a bid, click on this link: https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/childreninread2021?cid=2431
and scroll down until you see the image of the book you would like to bid on, then click on the price button and you can enter a bid when the large image pops up. You don’t pay until you win on the final day. I will pay the postage within the UK and inscribe the copy to whom you wish.
We now have another bid for £101. Copies on Amazon.UK – where is it has 47 reviews, are now listed as costing about £76. I promised that if the bidding went higher than £78 I would personally inscribe this large paperback edition and include a signed first edition hardback copy of my autobiographical book ‘Funnily Enough’, worth £15, which includes a few pages about filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in the Lake District.
I said that the bidding goes any higher than £101, I will include a copy of ‘Ride the Wings of Morning’, my memoir about leading a Swallows and Amazons style life camping in Africa:
To read about taking part in the same auction last year, please click here
If you need to know more about the auction, please contact Paddy Heron at Children in Read: childreninread@yahoo.com
The year 2020 began for me in Portugal. I was recovering from a broken arm and disappointed to have to cancel my annual charity ride through southern Africa. However, a lovely girl flew over from the Waterberg in South Africa to work for me and we had fun designing gifts, using the illustrations from ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’.
You can see more on Redbubble. The ‘Swallows and Amazons’ mugs are popular:
When news of the Coronavirus broke out, we launched an appeal to help families in rural South Africa, which proved a huge success.
Carefully monitored by a qualified nursing sister, and with the help of volunteers from St John’s Church, food packages are still being distributed to needy families, feeding about 150 people a month. Read the latest news here.
Tests were unavailable in March, but I might have had a light version of Covid-19 whist we were working on this fund-raising campaign. I certainly lost my sense of smell and developed a weird blister/rash on one hand and foot after spending ten days in bed with fatigue.
My talks, planned for the summer, were cancelled but I read a story for Lockdown Tales, produced by Wildbeast for BBC Radio Suffolk and made available on BBC Sounds. I took part in an online reading of ‘The Picts and the Martyrs’ by Arthur Ransome, recording a chapter at home.
As literary conferences went online, I led a workshop on photographing books for instagram, when we were joined by the award-winning author Claire Wade.
While devising exotic recipes for my next book, I began baking cakes for the first time in my life, adding cardamon and cloves.
We rolled up a circle in the lawn to make a Lockdown vegetable garden so the children could see how different plants developed. Our dancing carrots became a hit on Instagram.
I photographed one of my husband’s artichokes, winning the Create! competition, organised by the literacy charity SchoolReaders and judged anonymously by Harry Cory Wright.
I was Highly Commended for a collage made out of sea plastic I’d collected when beach cleaning, awarded by Emma Bridgewater. The winning entries were exhibited at the Wilson Stephens and Jones Gallery in Notting Hill.
SchoolReaders invited me to become an author supporter of their work instilling a love for books in the next generation, along with other authors including Joanna Trollop and Sophie Kinsella. We are encouraging people to make a gift in their will.
I began loading illustrations and some of my sketches onto instagram. Do follow this here.
Hailed as ‘the feel-good film of lockdown’,’Swallows and Amazons'(1974) was broadcast on BBC 2 in both April and August and screened in Australia.
I was invited to talk about the movie memorabilia in a socially isolated edition of BBC Antiques Roadshow at Windermere Jetty, broadcast in March 2021.
It was wonderful to be able to spend a few days in the Lake District, where Arthur Ransome’s first draft of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ is on display.
A signed First Edition hardback copy of ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ was auctioned online, raising an astonishing £201 for BBC Children in Need, exceeding bids for signed copies of books by bestselling authors such as Bernard Cornwall, Jeffery Archer and Adam Kay.
Lakeland Arts organised an online event to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the publication of ‘Swallows and Amazons’, selling tickets for an evening ‘In Conversation with Sophie Neville, which you can listen to here.
Kett’s Books invited me to speak on Zoom for their ‘Books at Lunchtime’
The greatest days of this unusual year were spent on the Solent, litter picking with my extended family, who came to live with us through lockdown. Although some dreams were grounded, we had time to go for long walks and were able to explore the South Coast where we live.
We formed a pod of six, so had no visitors, but I treasured the letters that arrived. I’m collecting quotes for the 3rd edition of ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons’, an ebook which I plan to bring out for the 50th Anniversary in 2024. Do write in with your memories.
Reviews and photos from readers are always appreciated, especially on Goodreads and Amazon.
After Christmas, I heard that a historical novel I am currently working on was awarded 3rd prize in the Association of Christian Writers’ novel competition and was shortlisted for the Eyeland’s Book Awards, who have offered me a writer’s residency in Crete.
As we entered Tier 3, I was recognised as ‘Beach Picker of the Year’ by Litter Pickers of the New Forest, a high accolade that marked the end of a quiet but busy year.
I gained three pounds and didn’t get to the hairdressers for eighteen months, but looked forward to a future with no need to wear face-masks. You can find my post on finding elderly litter here
Have you seen this set of Swallows and Amazons mugs printed with hand-painted maps of locations featured in my book on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’? Redbubble, the manufacturers often have discount coupons, which you should be able to find here.
The three different designs are now available in a ‘classic’ or ‘tall’ style, as a travel mug or a water bottle. The full collection is available here.
Swallows and Amazons map of Windermere
Map of Windermere water bottle available here
and travel mug available here.
Swallows and Amazons map of Derwentwater
Map of Derwentwater water bottle available here
and travel mug available here.
Swallows and Amazons map of Coniston Water
Map of Coniston water water bottle is available here
and travel mugs are available here.
You can see these designs on women’s clothing and men’s clothing with other useful items that make good presents or stocking fillers such as coasters:
The cover image of ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons’ is now available on a mug and on other products.
These high-quality goods are manufactured in Australia by RedBubble who take care of customs charges. If you are asked to pay customs, send them a picture of proof of payment of customs charges and they’ll sort it out.
Here’s a link to the help center – https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us.
The maps can be found in the paperback of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974), available from libraries, bookshops and online here.
Stir up Sunday falls on 23rd November this year. I thought it would be lovely to share ideas for literary Christmas cakes. Do send in photos of yours.
We made a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ seed cake with caraway seeds and almonds, which reminded me of being on Peel Island.
Not so long ago, Miranda Gore Brown brought her version of Mrs Dixon’s traditional fruit cake to The Arthur Ransome Society pirate feast, along with her book Bake Me A Cake As Fast As You Can, which has ideas on how to ice cakes.
Miranda has all sort of ideas for baking here. She made this cake for her son’s birthday, described in detail here, but does anyone have a recipe for ‘Cook’s black cake’ or bun loaf fried up after being dropped in the lake?
This amazing cake was made to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’. I love the fact that it is in the shape of a storybook.
A huge cake was baked to hail the launch of Julian Lovelock’s book ‘Swallows, Amazons and Coots‘.
This cake illustrates Arthur Ransome’s novel ‘Great Northern?’ set on the Isle of Lewis where filming took place for the DVD ‘Encountering the Ransomes’ released by The Arthur Ransome Society
We would love to see your ideas for literary decorations. Here are a few more to inspire you:
~Winner of The Susan Prize~
It was my privilege to award The Susan Prize to the girls who baked this cake. It proved they must have loved Arthur Ransome’s book ‘Winter Holiday’. The Swallows, Amazons and Ds are obviously contemplating whether or not to skate on the tarn that I understand was made by melting sweets and ‘took absolutely ages.’ You can see two of the characters approaching the ice.
Dorothea, the aspiring novelist, is skating around this cake, which tasted so delicious it almost transported me to the banks of the tarn itself.
~Winner of the Crumbly Creations~
A number of crumbly creations, using biscuits and chocolate, gave us a good idea of what the igloo in ‘Winter Holiday’ must have looked like, while this birthday cake was inspired by the Puffin cover of ‘Swallows and Amazons’.
Swallowy dodgers with slices of cake claimed by Amazon pirates were on offer at Lakeland Arts to accompany their Swallows and Amazons exhibition:
“There was an enormous gooseberry tart” recipe published in Signals:
Elizabeth Rondthaler Jolley sent this photo from America:
Adam Quinan has written from Canada: ‘I made this for an Arthur Ransome Birthday party event in Toronto back in January 2004. We went skating on an outdoor rink and ate Igloo hotpot and then came inside and listened to some storytellers retelling some of ‘Old Peter’s Russian Tales’ with the ‘Winter Holiday’ cake and tea.’
I didn’t bake this lovely cake – below- I spotted it on Pinterest, but they have made bunting out of the Swallows and Amazons flags I drew:
Here is a bunloaf baked to celebrate Arthur Ransome’s Birthday in 2022
Wild Cat Island makes a good cake. Here’s one made in January 2022:
There are also some great savory ideas including this eel made by Annie Warwick:
Look at these fabulous macaroons decorating this cake:
For some time now, I’ve had a Swallows and Amazons mug at home, which I use to keep my pens in. Featuring the design of the Jonathan Cape book jacket, it was given to me by Scruffie Buchanan who stocked the full set of Arthur Ransome mugs in her shop aptly called The Museum of Childhood. I treasure it as a part of mine. It is difficult to find these now. They have become collectors’ items.
Not long ago I was presented with this handsome mug from Hill Top Cottage at Ealinghearth, by Stephen and Janine Sykes when they showed me around the Ransome’s last home, which they have restored in the Lake District.
I’ve just discovered that it is possible to buy mugs depicting scenes from the film of Swallows & Amazons (1974). This one (above) is quite fun as it resembles the cover of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ There are others:
There are various scenes, but if you want to drink to Captain Flint walking the plank, you can.
My favourite design shows the film poster of Swallows & Amazons, which comes in two ways.
There are a variety of other stills from the film to chose from. These mugs and other movie merchandise such as mouse-mats, jigsaw puzzles and framed prints can be purchased from StudioCanal, the film’s distributors, who have an online shop.
Meanwhile, Jago Silver has designed these Expresso mugs that are great for camping.
You can check the size on Jago’s website here.
Just when I was wondering if there were any more ‘Swallows and Amazons’ inspired mugs, I was sent this beautiful depiction of Hill Top near Haverthwaite, showing the view Arthur and Genia would have enjoyed in their twilight years. Here are two views of the same mug:
I am not sure if they are for sale but you can rent the holiday cottage at the far end of the building. Please click here for details. Tell them I sent you!
Photos of this historic mug were taken by Craig Wadhurst.
These bone china mugs depicting Ransome’s yachts Peter Duck and the Nancy Blackett cost £10, or lessor a pair, and are available from The Nancy Blackett Trust here. They also sell a selection of books, audio books and videos for Arthur Ransome enthusiasts.
I have had decorative maps of Arthur Ransome locations around Windermere and Coniston applied to mugs available from Redbubble. Here is one featuring the cover of my book available here.
These come from Australia, so take a while to arrive but are good quality.
The most popular is the mug with the map of Coniston Water, which you can find here
If you like using thermal cups with lids, the decorative map of Coniston Water can be found here
The Swallows and Amazons map of Windermere on a thermal cup can be found in a different colour-way here
A full range of items in this range including t-shirts and bags can be seen on a previous post here.
The most beautiful range of Swallows and Amazons china including these small coffee mugs featuring the map from the book (above) and this plate, were once available from The Nancy Blackett shop but you might find they have sold out.
They do stock larger, more practical mugs depicting ‘Swallow’, and the ‘Nancy Blackett’ for £8.50 each here.
Do let me know if you know of any other Swallows & Amazons mugs and where they can be found in the comments below.
Sophie Neville 