Sophie Neville writer – Page 3

50th Anniversary of the film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ at Windermere Jetty in Cumbria

Saturday 29th June, 2024 – hosted by The Arthur Ransome Society

10.00am – The exhibition at Windermere Jetty opens. See Arthur Ransome’s dinghy Scarab, Swallow and Amazon from the 1974 film along with Titmouse from the BBC serial of Coot Club and other interesting boats.

There will be a display of 1974 movie memorabilia.

The Altounyan family hope to bring the original Amazon once called Mavis.

Enjoy the Swallows and Amazons lakeside camp and knot tying.

10.30am – Heritage boat trips on the steamboats Osprey and either Lady Elizabeth or Penelope who appeared in the Rio scenes. (This is at an extra cost)

10:30am – Film screening of Swallows and Amazons (1974)

11.00am onwards. Grab a chance to sail Amazon with an experienced skipper. Book with Sail Swallow and Amazon.

12:15am – Talk by Peter Wright on ‘How Ransome came to write Swallows and Amazons‘.

12:30pm – second showing of film Swallows and Amazons (1974)

Lunch at the Cafe on the lake where the Wooden Boat Regatta is gathering

2:15pm – Meet the cast, crew and screenwriter of Swallows and Amazons (1974) – introduced by John Sergeant, President of The Arthur Ransome Society. Do bring any books for signing. Simon West (John), Suzanna Hamilton (Susan), Sophie Neville (Titty), Kit Seymour (Nancy), Kerry Darbishire (Nurse) will be with Peter Robb-King (Make up designer), Daphne Neville (Chaperone) and others who worked on the film made in the summer of 1973.

3:00pm – Talk by Sophie Neville on ‘The making of Swallows and Amazons‘ featuring which scenes from the film were shot on Windermere.

4:00pm – The Boatband Concert

5:00 pm – final showing of film Swallows and Amazons (1974)

Strolling Singers will perform as and when the mood takes them

6:30pm Close

The film crew of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ wait with *Swallow* at the end of the jetty while Simon West, Suzanna Hamilton and Sophie Neville line up by the launch

Sunday 30th June, 2024 – hosted by The Arthur Ransome Society

10.00am – The exhibition at Windermere Jetty opens. See Arthur Ransome’s dinghy Scarab, Swallow and Amazon from the 1974 film along with Titmouse from the BBC serial of Coot Club.

The Altounyan family hope to bring the original Amazon once called Mavis.

There will be a display of 1974 movie memorabilia, a Swallows and Amazons camp and activities for children.

10.30am – Heritage boat trips on the steamboats Osprey and either Lady Elizabeth or Penelope who appeared in the Rio scenes. (This is at an extra cost)

10:30am – showing of film Swallows and Amazons (1974)

11.00am onwards. Grab a chance to sail Amazon with an experienced skipper. Book with Sail Swallow and Amazon.

12:15am – Meet the cast, crew and screenwriter of Swallows and Amazons (1974) – introduced by John Sergeant, President of The Arthur Ransome Society. Do bring any books for signing. Suzanna Hamilton (Susan), Sophie Neville (Titty), Kit Seymour (Nancy), Kerry Darbishire (Nurse) will be with Peter Robb-King (Make up designer), Daphne Neville (Chaperone) and others who worked on the film made in the summer of 1973.

1:00pm – Talk by Sophie Neville on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons‘

1:45pm – Second second showing of film Swallows and Amazons (1974)

3:15pm – Talk Peter Wright on ‘How Ransome came to write Swallows and Amazons‘

4:00pm – The Boatband Concert

5:00pm close

Speaking about Richard Pilbrow at the National Theatre

Swallows and Amazons (1974)

Richard Pilbrow told me that the most difficult thing he ever had to do was to persuade Mrs Ransome to grant him the rights to make ‘Swallows and Amazons’ into a movie.

But he did. He found funding from EMI Films and asked Dame Virginia McKenna to play Mother.

Virginia McKenna at Bank Ground Farm in 1973 ~ photo: Daphne Neville

Neville Thompson put together a great crew

The Production Team on 'Swallows and Amazons' in 1973 — Second Assistant Terry Needham, Associate Producer Neville C Thompson and Production Manager Graham Ford with the unit motoroller on a sunny day in June 1973

with Denis Lewiston as DoP,

Dennis Lewiston, director of Photography on 'Swallows and Amazons' ~photo:Richard Pilbrow — Dennis Lewiston, director of Photography on ‘Swallows and Amazons’ ~photo:Richard Pilbrow

the Oscar winning set dresser Ian Whittaker,

The local fisherman, Ian Whittaker, Simon Holland and Gareth Tandy ~ photo: Daphne Neville

and the avant guard director Claude Whatham fresh from making ‘That’ll Be the Day’ with David Essex and Ringo Starr.

Claude Whatham with the children he eventually cast as the Swallows

Filming on location in the Lake District wasn’t easy.

Producer Richard Pilbrow with Neville C Thompson on Derwentwater in the Lake District in 1973 — Producer Richard Pilbrow and Production Associate Neville C Thompson on Derwentwater in the Lake District in 1973

How they lit the scenes on Peel Island I do not know.

Virginia McKenna with Sophie Neville in Swallows and Amazons — Dame Virginia McKenna as Mother with Sophie Neville as Titty Walker

It rained so hard that Simon Holland had to order black drapes from Pinewood Studios so they could shoot the night scenes in Mrs Batty’s dusty barn.

But the film worked because Richard had insisted that the children playing the lead characters could sail.

Filming Swallows and Amazons (1974) from a camera pontoon

The film didn’t make much at the box office but it worked well on television.

Sophie Neville as Titty Walker in Swallows and Amazons — Sophie Neville as Titty Walker in the ITV trailer for the movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ when it was first shown on television in 1977

I’m told it has been broadcast more than any other British Film. Having a U certificate it has allowed many parents a lie-in on Sunday mornings.

Swallows and Amazons 1974 - Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Sten Grendon in Secret Harbour — Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Sten Grendon in Secret Harbour

Families assure me that they have watched the VHS or DVD thirty times or more. StudioCanal remastered it for cinemascope Blu-ray and we filled the big northern cinemas.

Sophie Neville as Titty with Suzanna Hamilton as Susan — Sophie Neville with Suzanna Hamilton

The good news is that, fifty years after the premier in Shaftesbury Avenue,

Sophie Neville and Suzanna Hamilton with Ronald Fraser in Swallows and Amazons

we are restoring the dinghies: Swallow and Amazon for families to sail.

I wrote up the diary I kept on location as a twelve year-old. Richard sent me the flags.

'The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville' — Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’

At the 50th Anniversary celebrations this April a man in the audience stood up to say that as a young doctor, he was working at a hospital on Good Friday. As he walked around he found peace in every ward, sick children snuggled up and happy. They were all watching ‘Swallows and Amazons’ on television. Richard’s gift.

Swallows and Amazons (1974) sepia film poster (c) StudioCanal — Arnaldo Putzu’s poster for the EMI film Swallows and Amazons (1974)

Richard and Molly’s dream became an inspiration to many.

Here you can see Richard and Molly with Claude Whatham, Neville, Fred, Abigail, Suzanna Hamilton and me at the sailing audition held in Burnham-on- Crouch. Simon West who was cast as Captain John went on to win the Optimist British Championships and represented the UK overseas.

Richard and Molly Pilbrow, Claude Watham, Fred Pilbrow, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton, Abigail Pilbrow

Writing the foreword to the well-loved novel ‘Swallowdale’ by Arthur Ransome

When Albatros Media in the Czech Republic re-published a hardback edition of ‘Swallowdale’ by Arthur Ransome, I was invited to write a foreword. This was for a special edition of the bestselling book illustrated by the great Czech artist Zdenek Burian.

The somewhat daunting task gave me the opportunity to recommend that readers book a holiday in Cumbria. It’s always exciting to find the actual locations described in a novel, particularly one you know well, although I believe finding Swallowdale is quite a challenge.

I was commissioned by Ondřej Müller, Fiction Program Director who had my words translated into Czech. Here is the English version:

Of all Arthur Ransome’s books, it was Swallowdale that inspired me to go camping. I have since pitched my tent all over the world from Papua New Guinea in the Pacific to Patagonia, which I crossed on horseback. I once spent six months driving down through Africa, sleeping in a tent and using all I had learnt from this beautifully written book. Not long after this expedition, I started to draw maps in the hope that I that might encourage others to travel and explore the world as the Swallows did.

Back in 1973 I had the great privilege of playing the part of Titty in the movie of ‘Swallows & Amazons’ that has been translated into Czech twice. Throughout my life I have received letters from people telling me how Arthur Ransome’s books have given them direction in life, encouraging them to set sail and explore unchartered waters.

If you ever visit the English Lake District take the charcoal burners’ advice and keep a good lookout for adders but in searching for Swallowdale one thing is for sure, you will be walking in Arthur Ransome’s footsteps. He was taken to the summit of Old Man Coniston, the mountain known in the book as Kanchenjunga, as a small baby and rowed into the secret harbour of Peel Island, or Wild Cat Island as the Swallows called it, when he was a boy.

The people of Cumbria still welcome visitors, indeed you can stay at the farm known as Holly Howe and it is possible to take a boat out on the lake below it. Coniston Water is not an exact replica of the map in the book, but you can enjoy looking for Horseshoe Cove and the Amazon boathouse. Rio can be found on Windermere where you might also find the Peak of Darien along with native steamers. Titty would encourage you to let your imagination take you further and I am sure Roger would suggest you take a fishing rod.

Even if travelling does not appeal to you, ‘Swallowdale’ is such a vivid story that you will sail back in time to 1931 quite effortlessly. This classic book is full of wonderful imagery from ‘black wretched thoughts…crowding in like cormorants coming to roost’, to potatoes being in bad mood. It is enjoyable on many levels. I laughed when Titty decided, ‘Miss Turner could hardly be dead if she was complaining of cold plates’ and was uplifted by her joy at discovering, ‘the most secret valley that ever there was in the world.’

I am so pleased that Albatros Media are able to bring you this beautifully illustrated edition, to read, enjoy and perhaps pass on to others.

If you are in North America and are looking for a copy of ‘Swallowdale’ in English, copies are on sale here for U$15.77 The illustrations are by Arthur Ransome himself.

50 years ago – when the EMI film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) was launched in cinemas

The original film ‘Swallows & Amazons’ was first screened at a preview in London on 31st March 1974.

Brian Doyle, the film publicist, noted it in his diary. This was sent to me by his daughter, Pandora Doyle, who was taken along with her mother Jo and friend Alison.

The cast of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ either joined them there or at an afternoon press screening on 2nd April. We certainly went to one preview. It utterly amazed us. We had not remembered the Lake District being so sunny.

The premiere was also held at the ABC cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, at a Royal Gala Premier on 4th April 1974.

The film has since been dubbed into at least eight different languages and screened all over the world. A number of different titles have been used from ‘Svaler og Amasoner’ to ‘El Capitan Pirata’.

They do not provide a release date for the Czech Republic, but it has been dubbed into Czech twice and is popular there. You can easily buy copies of the French version

the cover of the French DVD of 'Swallows and Amazons'(1974) — Caught shrieking on the cover of the French DVD of ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974)

It is now screening on Netflix Europe and Amazon Prime.

There was a big splash when ‘Swallows & Amazons’ was first screened in Gloucester. Sten Grendon, who appeared as the Boy Roger, and I were taught to swim at the leisure centre there. Chris Maloney, who was awarded an MBE for his part in founding the Special Olympics, began to coach me when I was ten. I’ve been told that he also taught Sophia Loren to swim for ‘The “Goodness Gracious Me” Heiress’.

As we lived locally, Sten and I were asked to attend the first screening at the newly converted triple screen ABC in Gloucester, which was daunting. They were also screening ‘The Sting’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ that both starred Robert Redford.

Chris Maloney later got Suzanna Hamilton and I jumping off the high board at Gloucester Leisure Centre. She was far braver than I.

You can read more in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ available in paperback from £15 or ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons’ an ebook for only £2.99

The Making of Swallows and Amazons by Sophie Neville — Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ by Sophie Neville

Celebrating 50th Anniversary of the EMI film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ at the Cinema Museum in London

Celebrating 50th Anniversary of the movie 'Swallows and Amazons' in 2024 — Celebrating 50th Anniversary of the movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 2024

On Saturday 6th April there was be a 50th Anniversary screening of the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ followed by a Q&A with cast and crew hosted by Brian Sibley and the screenwriter David Wood at the Cinema Museum in London. More info and link to ticket sales here.

A train strike complicated plans for many ! but cast members Simon West (Captain John), Suzanna Hamilton (Mate Susan), Sten Grendon (Boy Roger) and Kit Seymour (Captain Nancy) managed to make it, along with Gareth Tandy, who worked on the crew as Third Assistant director, and Jane Grendon who was our chaperone.

Daphne Neville with Stephen Grendon, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville, Jane Grendon and Simon West

Cedric James who worked on the camera came along.

As did our Make Up Designer Peter Robb-King .

Sophie Neville being made up for the part of Titty by Peter Robb-King in 1973

I hoped Terry Needham, the Second Assistant might be able to make it but he is in New Zealand.

Sophie Neville with Terry Needham and the unit radio at Derwentwater ~ photo: Daphne Neville

It was packed with every seat sold – a tribute to all the others on the crew who have passed away.

The screening took place at the Cinema Museum, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road) Kennington, London SE11 4TH, a former workhouse where Charlie Chaplin once stayed.

Thanks go to David Wood for getting us all together.

Sophie Neville and David Wood appearing on CBBCTV

There will be other events around the country listed on this website here.

Sophie Nevilleova’s foreward to ‘Swallowdale’ by Arthur Ransome illustrated by Zdenek Burian

Albatros Media in the Czech Republic have re-published a hardback edition of ‘Swallowdale’ by Arthur Ransome, illustrated by the great Czech artist Zdenek Burian.

The Foreword has been written by me, Sophie Nevilleová.

I was commissioned by Ondřej Müller, Fiction Program Director, thanks to an introduction by Petr Korbel, a feature writer in Prague. My somewhat daunting task was to introduce the well-loved story that comes with classic illustrations.

I took the opportunity to recommend that readers book a holiday in Cumbria. It’s always exciting to find the actual locations described in a novel, particularly one you know well, although I believe finding Swallowdale is quite a challenge.

Do tell any Czech friends or collectors of Ransome’s books about this publication. Click here for the sales site.

Albatros Media bookmark

Here is the English version of my contribution:

Even if travelling does not appeal to you, ‘Swallowdale’ is such a vivid story that you will sail back in time to 1931 quite effortlessly. This classic book is a full of wonderful imagery from ‘black wretched thoughts…crowding in like cormorants coming to roost’, to potatoes being in bad mood. It is enjoyable on many levels. I laughed when Titty decided, ‘Miss Turner could hardly be dead if she was complaining of cold plates’ and was uplifted by her joy at discovering, ‘the most secret valley that ever there was in the world.’

I am so pleased that Albatros Media are able to bring you this beautifully illustrated edition, to read, enjoy and perhaps pass on to others.

Burian’s version of the Swallows and Amazons flags

If you are in North America and are looking for a copy of ‘Swallowdale’ in English, Capital One have copies on sale for U$15.77.

Swallows & Amazons flags for book