I thought I’d lost it! But, on clearing out our mother’s house, my sister found the cuttings book I kept whilst making the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1973.
It includes a plan of the London double-decker bus where we received rudimentary lessons on location. Three bunkbeds on the top floor were meant to be used so we could rest after lunch. Mum said she forced me to lie down everyday but I can only remember a couple of occasion, once when I was reluctant, once when I was freezing cold after a swimming scene.
We changed into our costumes at the top of that bus, enjoying warmth from a gas stove that leaked rather alarmingly on one day necessitating an evacuation.
The exterior looked liked a conventional Routemaster with added curtains.
Lesley Bennett’s photo of the double decker buses at Bank Ground Farm in 1973
Once sitting at my desk, I found my italic fountain pen and began keeping a diary. One version of the first seven days spent in Cumbria is pasted into the scrap book. I later re-wrote a slightly more detailed and interesting version in a couple of notebooks and wrote about how I got the part of Titty, and the filming from different perspectives.
These pages describe the day spent travelling to Ambleside and a couple of days spent getting to know each other along with Dame Virginia McKenna, who played the Swallows’ mother, the producer Richard Pilbrow, David Blagden who was in charge of the sailing and the film director Cluade Whatham.
Encouraged by my mother, we began pasting in newspaper cuttings.
The Times and the Guardian were at Havethwaite Railway Station to take photographs on the first day of filming. The BBC Radio 4 newsreader, Alan Smith, who grew up in Cumbria, was a film extra that day and can be spotted standing in train doorway with his brother. He wrote to me with his memories of the day.
I began adding photos from contact sheets that Albert Clarke, the film’s stills photographer, took of the cast and crew. I wrote about the opening locations here.
There are pages of dictation and a few sketches of the film props. I drew the yellow Austin ‘taxi’ we drove in at the station.
There were some cuttings that I hadn’t seen for years until until I opened the pages of this mislaid cuttings book. Others can be found on earlier posts.
I took pages of dictation, learning about the plants and geology of the Lake District, about Beatrix Potter and the National Trust, but it’s a wonder any schoolwork was accomplished at all. We spent so much time on set. I fell behind in French and Maths but gained respectable exam grades that summer, gaining 80% in Geography. Perhaps I wrote about glacial lakes.
You can read more about the adventures we had whilst filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in books detailed on this website.
Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’
There is now an audiobook on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ published by The Lutterworth Press and available on all online platforms including Audible.
Daphne Neville with Sophie Neville while filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in Cumbria in 1973
It wasn’t until we were making preparations for the 50th Anniversary of the EMI film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ that I began to list all the work my mother, Daphne Neville, accomplished behind-the-scenes.
Daphne Neville accompanying Suzanna Hamilton, Kit seymour, Sten Grendon, Simon West, Sophie Neville, and Lesley Bennett out to the houseboat on Derwent Water
When I was offered the part of Titty Walker, she’d been invited to work as a chaperone, along with Sten Grendon’s mother, Jane Grendon. This proved to be a pretty demanding job. Getting us ready and into the minibus every morning alone must have been challenging. We stayed at the Oaklands Guest House where there were only two bathrooms shared between twenty-three residents – the eight of us, various students from the Charlotte Mason College of Education and the five members of the Price family who owned the house. We had to move out over Whitsun when it had been booked by holiday makers.
Dressed for the Cumbrian weather: Daphne Neville with Liz Lomas ~ photo: Richard Pilbrow
Mum was pretty horrified by the spaghetti hoops, cuppa soups and pasties given to us for supper and asked if we could have a fruit bowl in our school bus. Location catering in 1973 was good but aimed at providing electricians with meat and two veg, rather than food for children. We enjoyed salads and chicken drumsticks but baked beans could ruin a take and sugared food made us over-active and probably annoying.
Suzanna Hamilton, in her red tracksuit top, seeing what the location caterers had for lunch on the set of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ by Coniston Water
On film sets you normally have female costume assistants or dressers to help change actresses into their costumes. On ‘Swallows and Amazons’ we had Terry Smith the wardrobe master and my mother. Whenever there was a scene with film extras, Mum helped him to fit them with shoes and hats, helping the ladies into costumes for the opening scene at the station.
Wardrobe Master Terry Smith with Sophie Neville and her mother Daphne Neville outside the Make-up caravan on location near Keswick in Cumbria
Our hair was cut and looked after by Ronnie Cogan but mine had to be washed every night by Mummy. She moved me into her bedroom, which was tiny, but had a basin. This seems a small thing, but watch the film and you see my hair flying around the whole time indicating the ever-present wind.
Daphne Neville and Richard Pilbrow on Peel Island on Coniston Water in 1973 Amazons
Mum tried to keep us warm on location, getting us into life jackets and sunhats before we were taken off to the set, which was often either a boat or island.
Daphne Neville with Sophie Neville and Simon West on Coniston Water
Having won prizes for archery, she taught the Amazons to shoot with a bow and arrow for their scene on Wild Cat Island.
Daphne Neville teaching Lesley Bennet, who played Peggy, how to shot with a long bow
She also took a vast collection of behind the scenes photos, some of which were very good.
Ronald Fraser with Daphne Neville and Sophie Neville on Derwentwater in 1973
I couldn’t bear it when Ronnie Fraser flirted, but Mum enjoyed every moment of being on set. She longed to appear in the film as a supporting artist. My father, Martin, appeared in five different shots but Mum missed the crowd scene at Bowness and sequences taken aboard the MV Tern the next dau.
Jane Grendon with other film extras on the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’
Back home, she had a part-time job working for HTV who had given her leave but called her back to Bristol to present an episode of Women Only and promote the channel at the annual Bath and West Show. You can read more about this on her website here.
Suzanna Hamliton, Simon West, Claude Whatham Sophie Neville, Kit Seymour, Jean McGill with Daphne Neville kneeling at Blackpool funfair in 1973
While other members of the film crew were given one day off a week, our chaperones’ work never ended. Jane took us shopping or on walks up into the fells. Mum came with us on a trip to Blackpool.
Sophie Neville having her hair cut on location for the part of Titty Walker in 1973
She must have driven me to Epsom for a pick-up shot in September when members of the Walker family had more haircuts and enjoyed being reunited.
Daphne Neville with Stephen Grendon, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville, Jane Grendon and Simon West
While we hated the publicity that came with marketing the film, Mum embraced it to the full, collecting every newspaper and magazine article.
Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton, Daphne Neville, Lesley Bennett, Kit Seymour, Sten Grendon and Simon West off to the Puffin Club Party at the Commonwealth Institute in London
She took us to London for a Puffin Club show at the Commonwealth Institute devised by Kaye Webb,
Kaye Webb’s Puffin Club Show – April 1974
and to the Lord Mayor’s Show when we rode on a float set up by EMI Films.
Suzanna Hamilton, Stephen Grendon, Leslie Bennett, Simon West and Kit Seymour sailing the streets of London in ‘Swallow’
Mum was thrilled when invitations to the film premier arrived and bought me a green dress to wear to the ABC Cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue where it was held.
Daphne Neville at the London premier of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in Shaftesbury Avenue.
She framed a film poster and kept every photo, every scrap of paper related to the film along with the LP and other items of movie memorabilia.
Fifty years later the items were valued on BBC Antiques Roadshow as being worth over £4,000.
To read Daphne Neville’s articles on being a chaperone, please find three earlier posts on this website beginning here.
The Saucepan and her mother on a scenic railway in Cumbria in 1973 ~ photo: Martin Neville
Having won a Top Three Scripts award at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, Sophie was asked about her screenwriting.
Can you tell us a little about how you got started?
I began writing for BBC Television at the age of twenty-two. It was a disaster. Instead of presenting a polished script, I produced a rough draft that I thought we could develop in the rehearsal room. Developed it was – by Nicholas Parsons, one of the stars. He rewrote his own soliloquy, taking all the credit and a substantial fee. I’ve welcomed harsh feedback from beta readers ever since.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming a writer? How did you overcome it? Can you share a story about that that other aspiring writers can learn from?
Instant success with my first book was challenging. My illustrated memoir FUNNILY ENOUGH was at number 1 in Humor on Amazon Kindle in the UK (after free copies had been downloading at the rate of 250 a minute) but I had self-published, and had no team support. Instead pressing the go-button with a PR firm and marketing team, I was weigh-laid by the small stuff. Writers need skilled networks in place, especially in the age of New Media.
Funnily Enough – the paperback has black & white illustrations
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I began my career in television by working with children. I could see the potential and it gave me a niche, but the hazards were numerous.
A teacher opened one scene for me by saying, ‘Some people believe the world is flat.’ A five-year-old called out, ‘No, but it’s not! It’s bumpy.’ The mistake was that we had too much camera judder – my cameraman had dissolved in hysterics. A lesson learned: I used a tripod when capturing the opinions of eleven-year-olds. The results were so amusing that they were repeatedly endlessly when Daytime TV was launched in the UK.
Sophie Neville directing a sequence with BBC cameraman Lorraine Smith
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I felt compelled to write A BOY CALLED FREDDIE when I discovered Freddie Mercury, escaped from the violent 1964 Zanzibar revolution at the age of seventeen. If a year older, the man who became an international rock idol would have been forced into slave labour on coconut plantations. As it was, his family fled to London where his talent flourished and found stardom. Born Farrokh Bulsara, he became known as Freddie at school. The story of how he chose the name Mercury involves NASA but is only revealed in my screenplay – right at the end. Freddie’s father, Bomi, was a Parsee who worked as a cashier at the law courts where my Great-uncle Ronnie served as Chief Justice. I’ve been able to draw on my cousin’s stories of life in the heady days before a convicted rapist from Uganda brought mayhem to the archipelago of tropical islands, forcing the Sultan to escape by sea, along with my aunts and a plucky English women who had set up free and fair elections a month before mass murder broke out akin the movie HOTEL RWANDA (2004).
I’m also developing THE MEETING HOUSE, an exceptional true story from WWII about an East African serviceman I met who was airlifted out of a POW camp in Japan by his boyhood friend just before America bombed Tokyo. They landed in Silesia in the snow, which he’d only seen previously on the peak of Kilimanjaro, where he was born.
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?
Film fans love to hear about disasters that befell us while making the EMI movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ before the advent of CGI. I was persuaded to write THE MAKING of SWALLOWS and AMAZONS, now published by The Lutterworth Press.
Editions of ‘The Making of Swallows & Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’
Although it’s been screened on television more times than any other British movie, it remains a classic that some have never heard of. ‘Why are you here?’ I was asked at the 50th Anniversary screening.
‘I’m giving a couple of talks on how the film was made,’ I muttered.
‘How would you know how it was made?’
‘I was there.’ In almost every scene. ‘I worked on it.’
‘You couldn’t have been,’ the man insisted.
I could only take this as a compliment, but he looked aggrieved.
Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Kit Seymour in Cumbria
StudioCanal also thought I was an imposter as Dame Virginia McKenna had the star billing. Then the marketing executives watched the movie. When the DVD was launched they had me hosting Q&As at twelve cinemas and provided footage for all manner of TV programmes from CINEMANICS with David Wood the screenwriter to BBC BREAKFAST with my co-star Suzanna Hamilton.
Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Kit Seymour on BBC Breakfast
I’m currently working on an inspiring comic tale: BANANA MAN, THE TRUE STORY about Phil-the-Geek, a shy but good looking physicist, who increased the national consumption of bananas by 20% after exploiting a supermarket deal and making 8 pence on every bunch he bought – and gave away. His story hit international News headlines and won him the heart of a beautiful girl. I was her bridesmaid. Last week, their daughters have just graduated from Yale and Harvard, respectively. I intend to present the family with a fruit bowl.
Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer”? Please share a story or example for each.
Focus, forbearance and a five am start to the writing day are key, but I often come up with vital twists while soaking in the bath tub. I guess this is because my brain works best at periods of least resistance. The problem is that I end up groping for a notebook with wet hands.
Please share a story or example for each.
Personality, productivity, perseverance, patience, and a broken heart. We need to touch the audience with humor, in small ways that are easily identifiable. I have a scene in one novel about a man on the cusp of falling in love who loses his car keys in the heat of the day and is left feeling a fool in front of the girl he wants to impress. It’s based on the time I found my ignition keys with my feet. They had fallen into sand beneath the door of my car when I was driving through Botswana. The relief following this small miracle is etched deep in my soul.
In your opinion, were you a “natural born writer” or did you develop that aptitude later on? Can you explain what you mean?
I would describe myself as a ‘natural born story-teller’. Having a visual brain, I became a television director, attracted to Mike Leigh’s emerging art of improvisation on film. When on the converted BBC Drama Director’s Studio Course, I gave my actors the task of flirting whilst erecting a tent. It worked exceptionally well, except that they enjoyed the exercise so much it went on a little long. I should have provided them with earpieces to bring the story to a timely end.
We all need to hone the craft of writing. I had the amazing opportunity of assisting on drama serials such as ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Eastenders’. Looking back, I could have become a BBC script editor. Instead, I’ve spent the last twenty years attending Curtis Brown Creative novel writing courses and acquiring the art of writing about love under the Romantic Novelists Association’s New Writers’ Scheme. Entering writing competitions has proved an incentive and the wins help build my CV. The competition is such that we need to build a pedigree and provide consumer confidence.
Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?
I write true-life stories set in the 20th century, so draw on any memoirs or biographies I can find. I love amusing autobiographical novels, such as Fran Hill’s trilogy on life as a teenager in foster care. She is a master craftsman and a truly inspirational writer. I feed off her infectious humour poured out to the world on Substack.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Forced marriage needs to be recognized as conjugal slavery and made illegal worldwide. Female circumcision (FGM) needs to stop before more lives are lost to infection. I have no personal experience, but feel we must all speak out to support those unable to do so.
Chloe Williams has just written from Ontario in Canada, to say, “Some books entertain. Some enlighten. And some, like The Making of Swallows and Amazons and The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons, manage to bottle something impossibly rare: the feeling of looking back through a child’s eyes and realizing it was all real; the lake, the sails, the laughter and somehow, you were part of it.”
“These aren’t just behind-the-scenes diaries. They’re sun-dappled time machines. Your voice, both in memory and in your original childhood notes, is a miracle of tone: witty, observant, buoyant, and deeply human.”
Of the original movie, she wrote: “What A Christmas Story is to snowglobes and childhood winters, Swallows and Amazons (1974) is to summers on the water and you’ve preserved that magic with charm, heart, and astonishing detail.
“What makes these books unforgettable isn’t just nostalgia. It’s how alive they are. We feel the smell of old sails and camera tape, the blur of location shoots, the uncertainty and excitement of being a child caught in a grown-up world of filmmaking yet utterly at home in it. We meet legends like Virginia McKenna not as distant stars, but as fellow travelers in the adventure. And it’s a joy.”
The Making of Swallows and Amazons seems to resonate with:
Readers of nostalgic memoirs that celebrate childhood, nature, and storytelling
Adults who are captivated by the lake-country magic of Arthur Ransome
Film lovers who cherish insider views of filmmaking
Educators and parents seeking real-life adventure stories for young readers
Fans of Call the Midwife, The Durrells, and 84, Charing Cross Road
“The joy and authenticity in your books mirror exactly why Swallows & Amazons (1974) still has such a hold on people’s hearts. The memoirs don’t just tell the story of making the film, they recreate it, letting readers smell the lake air and see the magic unfold through a child’s eyes.”
The new audiobook
I’m hoping the audiobook will also amuse readers. It’s now available on all the online platforms including Audible, where isis being offered for free on their membership trial.
Swallows and Amazons, the well-loved children’s classic, was released in cinemas in April 1974. After fifty years, it has been screened on television more than any other British film and is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Having also appeared in the BBC play Cider With Rosie, Sophie went on to appear in Animal Magic, Crossroads, The Two Ronnies, and had a leading part in an adventure movie, The Copter Kids, opposite Sophie Ward and Derek Fowlds.
I remember Swallows and Amazons, and The Two Ronnies in particular. I loved their Charley Farley and Piggy Malone series in which Sophie appeared.
After directing plays at university, Sophie won a contract on the Graduate Trainee Scheme and worked in television production, assisting on Doctor Who (I am a life-long fan) Eastenders, the police series Rockcliffe’s Babies, and the first BBC adaptation of My Family and Other Animals made on Corfu. She filmed the wartime drama Bluebell in Paris and directed the animation and visual effects sequences for Through the Dragon’s Eye. She went on to produce an INSET series, directed a number of comedy dramas for BBC Schools Television and ended up working on well over a hundred different television programmes.
In 1985, Sophie drove from London to Johannesburg, making her first documentary for Channel 4. In 1992, she emigrated to Southern Africa where she set up a couple of BBC wildlife series and a Blue Peter Summer Special. She bought a horse, lived on different game reserves and spent time between contracts writing stories illustrated with sketches made while working for friends as a safari guide.
Sophie is now working on the third edition of her filmography The Making of Swallows and Amazons, which is already out on audio. Her Christian memoir Funnily Enough won 3rd prize in the International Rubery Book Award. She is republishing this illustrated paperback and the sequel Ride The Wings of Morning with Resolute Books.
Do also check out her YouTube book trailers. Links given at the end of the interview. Sophie gives talks on a number of subjects, often speaking at yacht clubs, the Southampton International Boat Show and literary events.
This year, 2024, saw the 50th anniversary of Swallows and Amazons being released in cinemas. Fans gathered for screenings with Q&As at the Cinema Museum, and Windermere Jetty in Cumbria when Sophie was interviewed by John Sergeant.
If anyone could be said to fully embrace the creative life, it is Sophie Neville. She has won seven awards for screenwriting in the last few weeks.
Sophie, your incredible career exudes creativity. What are the joys of creativity for you?
I’ve always enjoyed making things and feel called to leave a legacy of illustrated stories.
What have been your favourite things about your acting and production work?
I loved being on location with a creative team of designers. Having worked with the Oscar-winning set dresser Ian Whittaker as a child, I enjoyed working with props at the BBC. These included a number of animals from an Indian Elephant on board a ferry in Harwich to a tortoise that made rather a mess of my unit car.
How have the different aspects of your work fed into one another?
Acting in films and in television as a girl gave me invaluable experience when it came to writing screenplays. I spent so much time in rehearsal rooms in my twenties that I find script writing easier than putting novels together. It was my job to record the time of each scene with a stopwatch and report back to our script editor who would compare lengths with the read-through. I’m guilty of writing rather short scenes now and wish that I’d kept some of our old scripts, which show the edits. However my mother kept numerous scripts. I have two for Prime Suspect, and other television series she appeared in. We found copies of the original Swallows and Amazons script adapted by David Wood. All the added jeopardy he must have worked so hard to include was cut along with a scene that featured Virginia McKenna, but stories take on their own pace and most of the best scenes can have no dialogue at all. Swallows and Amazons is a landscape movie with a little girl saying, ‘I’ve got her, I’ve got her.’ Those words were never scripted. They exploded from my mouth after lying alone in a damp dinghy on Derwentwater. It’s often the simplest lines that make a movie. The best line of all time in any movie must be, ‘My daddy, my daddy!’
Sophie Neville aged ten by Caroline Assheton
I first wrote for television at the age of twenty-two when working on Russell Harty’s Christmas Party. It was a disaster. My idea for a pantomime theme was accepted, and worked well, but I only took a rough draft of the dialogue to the rehearsal room. Nicholas Parsons re-wrote it on the spot, which was mortifying. Esther Rantzen carried the musical number for me by sheer force of character. I’d asked her to arrive in Dick Whittington costume, which was a great success. No one knew what fabulous legs she had until the moment she came on to sing with the studio audience. No one knew that the lettering on the song sheet lowered was still wet. I’d had to grab a paintbrush and improve it within minutes of going on air. It was literally a matter of writing for television – 7.00pm on BBC One.
There is a lot of preparation behind-the-scenes for talks. Do you find this easier to do now?
Preparation, preparation, preparation, with an extra speech up your sleeve. I needed I.T. lessons in how to load up a Point Presentation but soon learnt to gain momentum and dramatic effect by pre-empting my slides. This requires memorising the order. I can use up to 120 for a 45-minute talk but the images release me from the need for notes. I use a couple of short films or book trailers while people are talking their seats if I need to establish an atmosphere in a large venue. Simple things like asking for blinds to be drawn or testing the mic is vital. I always ask what colour the seats are. I once turned up in a dress that merged me with the curtains and tablecloths until I became almost totally camouflaged. All you can see in the photos is my head. I once wore a baby-pink coat to venue where all the walls were orange. I thought it would be safe to wear navy blue and white for the next yacht club talk only to find myself standing in front of blue and white striped curtains that matched what I was wearing exactly. I should have worn the pink.
What have you found are the most useful tips for public speaking?
I am a volunteer speaker for Bible Society who give us media training, which is invaluable. It’s good to have three points lined up and a couple of funny stories when you are interviewed on the radio. It’s best if you can prepare the presenter by providing them with bullet point information about books or events you are publicising, otherwise the best opportunity for plugging something is right at the beginning of the interview. I had the opportunity to appear on BBC Antiques Roadshow in 2021 and simply answered the questions. What I should have said was, “I kept a diary that I felt compelled to bring out as an illustrated paperback. It’s now available online….” Of course advertising is forbidden, and will almost certainly be cut out, but I could have kept one of the books in my hand. Visual aids are always effective. Prepare a basketful.
Did the pandemic get in the way of giving talks or have things like Zoom made more things possible?
Lockdown introduced me to Zoom, which has been a blessing, although I’ve had my fill. While Covid restrictions swept away my plans for public speaking, I gave a number of author interviews that are now on Youtube, and read a children’s book for BBC Radio Suffolk.
You are a patron of the UK Wild Otter Trust. How did you get involved with this?
My family kept tame otters for forty years. Our mission was to raise awareness about the need for pure water and undisturbed habitat. I began talking to crowds of people at country fairs, which is good experience for any speaker as the questions can be bizarre. The otters we were asked to hand-rear acted as ambassadors for their species while we delivered facts by telling stories in whatever ways we could, a bit like a safari guide. I ended up being photographed with the Prince of Wales and a naughty otter for the front page of the Daily Telegraph.
I was able to write about living with otters in Funnily Enough. This amused the editor of iBelieve magazine who published double page extracts for eleven months. The tame otters appeared on a huge number of television programmes from detective serials to movies such as Scottish Mussel, a rom-com written, directed by and starring Tallulah Riley. We made that on location near Dunoon in 2015. Otter wranglers are not given much credit but it got the conservation message across to audiences who might never watch wildlife programmes. The film is now streaming online. You can guess how wet I got chasing otters through boggy woodland.
What does the UK Wild Otter Trust aim to do?
The UK Wild Otter Trust is based in North Devon where they look after rescued otters and orphaned cubs before releasing them back into the wild. The trust offers advice to fish farms, anglers and game keepers, helping landowners to build holts. It’s a great charity to support. Back in 1982, wild otter populations in England and Wales had dwindled to about 150 pairs. You now need to take care when driving by rivers at night as young males are expanding into new territories. They don’t like swimming under road bridges.
You kept a diary of your time while filming Swallows and Amazons. Can you recall how easy or otherwise it was to keep that going? What drove you to keep a diary? Also do you keep a diary related to your work now?
Swallows and Amazons was made during the summer term, so we girls kept diaries on location as part of our schoolwork. My mother was very keen on this. I started writing a journal when we went to Tanzania in 1972 and I kept diaries whilst at boarding school. Perhaps I should type them up, but I fear they are not terribly interesting. “Alex was sick in needlework,” is about as sensational as it gets.
My granny taught me how to knit and sew. I find it helps to compare the craft of constructing stories to embroidery or knitting with different colours. You can stitch in extracts from diaries or letters. I’m darning a few holes right now, but once accomplished the garments will be ready to wear straight away.
Other than Arthur Ransome’s wonderful work, which other authors have made an impact on you, both as a child and as an adult? Why do you think this is? Also what do you most enjoy reading? What do you think the benefits of reading are for writers?
I read a lot of memoirs, many of which are self-published. They have provided me with extraordinary facts and stories that I’ve been able to weave into my novels set in the 20th century.
Hundreds of authors have inspired me from James Herriot, Jilly Cooper and Helen Fielding to CS Lewis, Adrian Plass and Catherine Fox but Laurie Lee, Gerald Durrell and Arthur Ransome have probably influenced me more than others as I’ve spent so long working on adaptations of their books. I also worked on the dramatised biographies of the dancer Margaret Kelly (Bluebell), the zoo vet David Taylor (One by One) and The Diary of Anne Frank.
You wrote Funnily Enough based on your experience of struggling with chronic fatigue. Was that a book you just felt you had to write? How hard was it to be so open about ME? Did you find writing the book therapeutic? I was touched to read the reviews showing many found reading the book to help them that way.
I returned from completing a Discipleship Training Course with YWAM – Youth With a Mission – wanting to deliver my testimony in an amusing way but got stuck until I found the illustrated diary that I’d kept when I fell ill with ME. I withdrew it from the bookshelf feeling led to lay everything else aside and type it up.
A story behind the story: Having spent weeks putting the first draft of Funnily Enough onto a disc, my bag was stollen in the Masai Mara. It was pretty dramatic. I woke to find my safari tent had been slashed open while I’d been asleep. Everyone was shocked but I felt compelled to look for the bag, which I found discarded in a ditch. My binoculars and Psion (I’d naively assumed that I could write a book on palmtop) were missing but I retrieved the disc. I was able to begin editing the manuscript on a shiny new PC that had been donated to a primary school where I lived in South Africa. I gave the headmistress lessons on how to use Microsoft Word and worked on Funnily Enough whilst she was busy teaching. She asked me to look after the computer over the Christmas holidays, which enabled me to keep writing until I could afford to buy a new laptop. After three years, the palmtop was returned by a Masai student at university in Alaska. He had opened my Psion to see that I’d been helping the people of Africa by writing newsletters for Waterberg for Jesus.
Memoirs are inevitably exposing, especially if you are taking about your faith. I knew that in order to be of real help to readers, I needed to put my soul on the page, but tried not to embarrass my friends. Thankfully, Mum let me write whatever was entertaining and is happy to bear the brunt of my jokes. This shocked a few Christian readers until they watched her on an outrageous series of Come Dine With Me and an episode of Chanel 4’s Obsessive Cleaners that featured me in de-cluttering mode. Notes of sympathy poured in, unaware that Mum was playing to the camera and loving the attention. She is eighty-eight now and still wants to appear in movies. ‘You must write a starring role for me!’
We had a little miracle with Funnily Enough when it reached No. 2 in all categories for free Kindle downloads in the UK. I gave away 16,000 e-copies. I was thanked by some stinky reviews from atheists but as John Wesley said, you have to expect a few rotten tomatoes. I laughed a great deal writing that book. There are one or two stories that still have me in fits. I could hardly narrate the audiobook. People say that Ride the Wings of Morning also has them laughing out loud. The best bits are letters written by my sisters. It’s a love story – but of love between family and friends rather than artificial romance. My (then) boyfriend was furious when he saw an early draft, but he later wrote from Afghanistan to say how much he loved it and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. He spent nine years looking after snow leopards in the mountains so enjoyed looking back on our mad adventures in Southern Africa. I hope it helped him survive the isolation. Writing has certainly helped me to get my thoughts in order and fulfilled an urge to record the best moments in life before they evaporate.
You’ve travelled a lot. How easy or otherwise have you found it to readjust back to life in the UK? Have you been able to use travelling time to write? Or do you have to block out times to write when you are at home?
My great love is long-distance riding. I’ve ridden horses down the coast of Uruguay, across South America, through the Okavango, Ethiopia, Georgia, and across the Namib Desert. I set up wildlife documentaries in Botswana, Namibia and Natal, taking on the research for a Blue Peter exploration of South Africa.
I settled on the south coast of England when I got married in 2004 but was immediately confronted by a crisis that could not be laughed off. There was a terrible accident when we were on honeymoon in southern Spain. My husband was accused of negligent homicide. He was released by the magistrate, and a second judge but I spent the next six years preparing for a civil case (one summons to court after another thanks to endless postponements). I tried to process the angst by writing about what happened but ground to a halt as it would have been disrespectful to bring in humour. Perhaps one day I will be able to use the facts. I now know about shot-induced heart attacks, which I don’t think has been covered on film, and now stress the importance of testing for morning-after alcohol in the blood, which is not carried out in all post mortems overseas.
If your writing is important it will usually surpass other busy-ness. I ended up bringing out my first two books while renovating our house. We had no roof, but there I was, working with my formatter and toddling off to the London Book Show. I now find it best to write between five and nine in the morning but the networking involved in presenting the finished product takes me out and about. I’ve given over one hundred talks and have a full diary of festivals and events this year. My husband wants to move to a retirement village so that I can travel more.
I put together a number of scripts and PR announcements while I worked in television but didn’t begin writing books and feature articles until I was forty. It was a lovely occupation to have in the African bush. Roald Dahl claimed he only wrote for four hours a day, and yet was highly productive. I hang on to that advise when boring admin and accounts crowd out the rest of the day.
How did you find going from writing books to writing scripts? Two very different disciplines there. What would you say were the advantages of both forms? What have you found the most frustrating elements to both forms (I should imagine there are some!)?
We need to use our strengths. I’m good at concepts, writing dialogue and knitting the plot together, which can be easier with a script. I enjoy innovative structure but building that can be exhausting. Plot holes usually force one to find a new twist, and twists are in high demand these days, but the whole business boils down to patience and tenacity. Push out boundaries and you are bound to get as many rejections, especially if you are a Christian writer, but persevere and all the pruning has to bear richer fruit. I’m just a craftsman used to working to deadlines.
I remember walking down Lime Grove in Shepheard’s Bush wondering how on Earth I was going to edit three fly-on-the wall documentaries I’d just shot for the BBC when I remembered that Jesus was a carpenter and knew how to fit things together. I would be nowhere without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
I admire anyone who has any talent for art. Your artwork is amazing. Do you find working on any art to be soothing, a challenge, or a mixture? An obvious question perhaps but how do you find the time? What does art mean to you? Do you find it feeds into your writing?
I worked as a professional wildlife artist in southern Africa between freelance television contracts. At one point I was selling twenty pieces of artwork a month. Taking commissions, mounting exhibitions and being interviewed by the Inland Revenue certainly prepared me for the business and discipline of writing on a self-employed basis. I drew a lot of decorative maps and was able to use sketches and unsold artwork to illustrate my books. If you own the copyright to your own book cover you can get it made up into cards and mugs. I sell a few online via Redbubble to publicise my books.
Is there an actor you have not worked with but would love to do so?
Twenty years ago, I wrote a part for Eddie Redmayne who read my script while on a villa holiday with my stepson. The screenplay was optioned and has won a number of writing wards but its an epic and taking so long to sell that Eddie can no longer pass as a nineteen year-old, which is a bit of a pity.
If you were stuck on a desert island for a short period but you were allowed to have eight books with you, which would you choose and why? The Bible and Shakespeare are already there and, as I am a fan, Jane Austen is too.
Eight books full of blank pages and a pen, please. I’d love a paintbox too.
What would you say were the writing tips which have most helped you?
‘Writing is re-writing’. I need to go to draft 100 every time, needing the help of at least three proof-readers before sending anything off.
Last but not least, what themes in stories mean the most to you? The Bible has wonderful stories and the Book of Psalms has fabulous poetry. Many themes have come from here. I once heard an interview with an EastEnders scriptwriter who revealed many of their themes do come from the Bible (and from the little I’ve seen, I would say they’ve used the theme of Cain and Abel as well as Delilah a lot!)
We writers have much to learn from the persistence of biblical scribes and narrators, not forgetting those who lugged around the scrolls. I try to quote from scripture imaginatively. It’s great to be able to draw on so many famous, yet copyright free stories presented to us by the Bible. I’m interested in exploring those that involve slavery but I’m sure it’s the historical romances that sell. I enjoyed reading The Red Tent and love the British movie Nativity!
I’ve enjoyed contributing chapters to the ACW publications Merry Christmas Everyone and Write Well. Perhaps the next one could be a collection of Easter stories. A study of slavery in the Bible might open up discussion and sell well. It’s such a hot topic. Looking at women in the Bible is another option. I’m sure ACW writers would have lots of brilliant ideas.
Sophie loves hearing from readers and appreciates reviews.
The Making of Swallows and Amazons is available direct from the publishers, The Lutterworth Press, from Waterstones, and all the usual online retailers.
Sophie narrated the audiobook copy.
The paperback, illustrated with maps, film stills and behind-the-scenes photos is similar to the multimedia Kindle copy entitled The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons, which includes links to home movie footage taken on location.
Ride the Wings of Morning is an illustrated paperback that will take you to southern Africa where Sophie tells of her adventures working as a safari guide and wildlife artist. It looks fabulous in ebook form as her watercolours are back lit on colour screens. The Kindle ebook sells at £2.99
“My professional life began at the age of ten when I gained a part in the first BBC adaptation of Cider With Rosie. Two years later, the director, Claude Whatham, invited me to interview for the part of Able Seaman Titty in the EMI film Swallows & Amazons (1974). He never thought to ask if either I, or Virginia McKenna who played my mother, could row a boat but I grew up next a lake in the Cotswolds where I was used to rowing a Thames skiff. In the film I had to row with a massive 35mm Panavision camera in the stern but it was fun. I started rowing more seriously at Durham University and managed to complete the five-hour Voga Longa in Venice on the crew of the Drapers’ shallop.
The Drapers’ Barge ‘Royal Thamesis’ in Venice
I began directing plays at university and won a place on the BBC General Trainee Scheme. After working on The Book Show and the live television chat show Russell Harty, I gained a job casting children on the BBC dramatisation of Coot Club and The Big Six. I then worked on serials such as My Family and Other Animals, Doctor Who, Eastenders and shot the wartime romance Bluebell in Paris before directing comic dramas for BBC Schools Television.
Sophie Neville, in stripy top, on the BBC Studio Director’s Course at BBC Elstree Studios, Borehamwood in 1990
I was twenty-two when I first wrote for television. It was a disaster. My concept was accepted but Nicholas Parsons had to re-write the dialogue. I later put together a few drama documentaries and an INSET series for Schools Television, which worked well. In 2004, I was commissioned to write a feature film about Germans in Africa. Sadly, the producer died but I’ve continued to develop this and written a second screenplay that is currently winning international script awards. Both are based on true stories about the lives of family members who emigrated to East Africa in 1919.
I’ve always been attracted to the wilderness and the amazing people you find there. In 1985, I drove from London to Johannesburg, making my first documentary for Channel 4. In 1992, I emigrated to Southern Africa where I set up a couple of BBC wildlife series and a Blue Peter Summer Special.
I bought a horse, lived on different game reserves and spent time between contracts writing stories illustrated with sketches made while working for friends as a safari guide.
In the western Okavango
I’d begun riding at the age of four and had such obstreperous ponies as a child that nothing in the Africa bush daunted me. We had to do most of our own veterinary work in the Okavango Delta. I ended up nursing a stallion who’d been scratched on the rump by a lion and became a great believer in Epsom salts.
I have drawn all my life but only turned professional as a wildlife artist after I broke my pelvis falling off someone’s horse. My grandfather, HW Neville, was a landscape artist who became the first art master at Stowe School after service as a re-mounts officer in WWI. Like him, I took to painting watercolours outdoors, began exhibiting in London, and made enough money at a solo exhibition to go on a YWAM Discipleship Training Course in New Zealand. On returning home, I felt called to adapt a diary I’d once kept into a humorous book entitled Funnily Enough, which was serialised in iBelieve magazine.
I somehow brought out Ride the Wings of Morning, followed byThe Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons when we were renovating the family home in Hampshire and began writing articles while contributing to non-fiction publications. I now belong to a consortium of Christian writers called Resolute Books, with Ruth Leigh, Clare Dunn, Paul Trembling, Liz Carter and members of the Association of Christian Writers. My paperback on The Making of Swallows and Amazons is published by The Lutterworth Press. They are based in Cambridge where I spoke on writing for the screen at the British Christian Writers’ Conference last year.
We had a little miracle: Funnily Enough, which is a Christian testimony, reached No. 2 in all categories for free Kindle downloads in the UK. It was down-loaded at 250 copies and hour. After giving away 16,000 e-copies, I was in bed, recovering from a horrid biopsy, when a cut-glass crystal trophy arrived in the post: Funnily Enough had won third prize in the International Rubery Book Award.
I love the writing of CS Lewis, Adrian Plass and Catherine Fox, although Arthur Ransome has had the greatest impact on my life. I’ve given over a hundred talks about filming Swallows and Amazons and will be appearing at the Swallows and Amazons Festival at Windermere Jetty in Cumbria this summer. The Arthur Ransome Society – the second biggest literary society in Britain – is bringing along the boats used in the film along. Members of the cast and crew will be able to see the original Amazon owned by members of the Altounyan family, Arthur Ransome’s dinghy Coch-y-Bonddhu and hopefully travel on the MV Tern, which the Swallows nearly crashed into on film.
I’ve been representing Bible Society since going on a short-term mission to China in 2011. We visited the Amity Printing Press, various churches and met pastors around the country. Bible distribution is conducted openly, and is both well-organised and joyous. There are often speeches, music and songs, and sometimes free hair cutting or gynae scans for women whose health was compromised by the one-child policy. I’m now Bible Society’s volunteer speaker for the New Forest and Isle of Wight, so let me know if you need a slide show.
I now spend far too much time behind a laptop but live on the South Coast where I take exercise by collecting flotsam. Becoming New ForestBeach Cleaner of the Year was a surprise butlitter gives me plenty to write about. You find the strangest things. There are now about 2,000 Litter Pickers of the New Forest clearing up the National Park before our wildlife chokes to death. They’re all amazing.
Awarded ‘Litter Picker of the Year’
I met my husband at an archery meeting in Worcestershire. I was fed up with being single and complained to the Lord, asking “Why can’t I marry that man?”. The archer in my sights proposed to me six weeks later. His grandfather had been an Olympic archer who’d introduced my parents to the longbow in the ’sixties. Mum had given the Amazons lessons on how to shoot for the film Swallows and Amazons when we children had all wanted a go. I picked up the basics in the Lake District and became just good enough to gain the leading role as an archery champion in an adventure movie called The Copter Kids when I was fifteen. We now belong to three archery societies and sometimes win the odd trophy. It’s the only word that rhymes with Sophie.
Other answers to prayer have been pretty dramatic. Try taking medicines into a war-torn African country and you’ll find out. Shattered lives, cruelty, destruction and waste make me angry. Litter falls under this category. Fulfilment of potential makes me happy. I like walking along beaches and riding through the wilderness. I love the sound of waves and horses.
The promises of God are what give me hope for the future. I pray for their fulfilment. If locked in a church it would be nice to be with my husband. He’s never ever failed to stop and pray with me but we risk talking about the mundane. The South African intercessor Bernie Mostert would probably use the time most powerfully, but I’m yet to meet him.
There’s an apparent demand for family films and faith-based scripts in America. My own work in progress is called Banana Man – The True Story. It’s about singleness and marriage with humour akin to Debbie Isitt’s film Nativity! starring Martin Freeman. Spare me a prayer. It would be fun it that got off the ground.”
I have been told that the 1974 film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ has been broadcast on television more than any other British film. Arthur Ransome’s well loved series can be found on the shelves of most book shops. Many of his devoted readers belong to the Arthur Ransome Group on Facebook where they share interesting observations some of which I have collected here:
Jill Goulder was interested to learn that the film of ‘Swallows and Amazons‘ was made with EMI Film’s box office revenue from ‘The Railway Children‘ (1970), the adaptation of E Nesbit’s book starring Jenny Agutter . “So we have ‘The Railway Children‘ partly to thank! I’m thinking about themes in common. A focus on a family of children with father absent and mother in the background; the children fairly realistic (‘The Railway Children‘ may win on points here as the children argue among themselves); beautiful scenery; a key point of interest in the landscape (railway, lake) which influences the plot; male characters who aren’t always amiable but who are basically very attached to the children; an episode involving an accusation (false in the case of the firework, true in the case of the coal theft); etc!” The two films were bought out together on VHS.
Jill later pointed out, “In World War II, spy catchers interrogating possible German spies would check their knowledge of Arthur Ransome as a classic test of Britishness.”
I thought this ironic given the spy themes in The Railway Children and the 2016 film adaptation of Swallows and Amazons. And why did Commander Walker send such cryptic telegrams. Was he more than a Naval Officer? Was his ship really in Malta or on its way to Hong Kong?
Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Sten Grendon in Secret Harbour
Maurice Thomas noted that, “both Ransome and Nesbit (and CS Lewis) liked the fit of two girls and two boys, though the second boy is absent from ‘The Railway Children‘. Both ‘Swallows and Amazons‘ and ‘Five Children and It‘ have a “ship’s baby”. The trope of four seems to go wider, though – four hobbits, for example. I suppose it’s the smallest group where you can have “split quests” that still allow for character dialogue, otherwise it’s just one person and their thoughts. Lewis does it, of course, when Edmund becomes evil, but at least he has Jadis to talk to.”
Tamzin Neville playing Anthea in The Phoenix and the Carpet
My sister Tamzin played Anthea in the 1976 BBC adaptation of The Phoenix and the Carpet, when E Nesbit features a family of five children: two girls, two boys and a baby. The Captain Flint character, who facilitates their adventures, is the Phoenix, his houseboat/the Wildcat is a magic carpet. I wonder if Ransome, who knew E Nesbit, was influenced by this story.
Janet Mearns noted, “Louisa M Alcott’s ‘Little Women’, features four children, all girls but Jo is a forerunner of Nancy, one parent absent. Capt Marryat’s ‘Children of the New Forest’: two boys and two girls living off the land, both parents absent.”
Matthew Jones wrote, “What’s lovely about AR’s stories is how they pull his characters out of gloom (along with his readers) into the world of friends and connection and purpose.”
Simon West as Captain John rowing towards the Landing Place
The question, ‘How old is John Walker in Swallows and Amazons?’ is often typed into Google.
John Fenn expressed an interest in Captain John’s character. “In his illustrations Arthur Ransome found it hard to keep John young enough. I suspect that John was the boy Arthur Ransome wished he had been, easily gaining his father’s approval (especially in ‘We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea‘ and ‘Secret Water’) which was so often withheld from Ransome himself. It’s not surprising he ‘saw’ John as more grown up than he was, and therefore could not keep him young in his illustrations. The upshot is that in the 1974 film it is a shock to us to see a John who looks the age he is supposed to be – about 12.” And yet Simon West, who was only aged 11 when he played Captain John, was adept at handling boats, climbing pine trees and negotiating with adults. He fell easily into the part.
Simon West as Captain John in Swallows and Amazons 1974
The author Jon Tucker writes, “An enduring children’s book is like an onion – multi-layered. The seven-year old is focused mainly on the action embedded in the narrative. The ten-year old is more aware of the underlying emotions. By a third reading at 13 or 14 years, the more mature teen reader can grasp the inter-relationships between the characters entwined within the outer layers. If the book has real substance, an adult reader will absorb those three layers, with a further understanding of the adult characters’ perspectives.”
Sophie Neville as Titty with Suzanna Hamilton playing Susan in 1974
“Taking Swallows and Amazons as an example, we adult readers can understand Titty’s slightly apprehensive emotions alone on Wildcat Island, alongside Mother’s somewhat concerned puzzlement on finding her eight/nine-year-old daughter apparently abandoned. We can also reach out to Captain Flint’s realization that he needs to pull out all stops to make amends for his nearly unforgivable behaviour towards John. A huge part of the success of this novel is the battle for Houseboat Bay, with Captain Flint’s endearing actions to put things right. Ransome’s enduring appeal lies in having a readership which has survived into adulthood.”
Michael Shaw said Titty is his daughter’s absolutely favourite character “because she makes everything into an adventure story” but not everyone can cope. Someone commenting elsewhere on Facebook wrote,”I could never read ‘Swallows and Amazons’, because one of the characters was named ‘Titty.’ It pulled me right out of the story. I just could not imagine everyone calling her that.” And yet the character was based on Titty Altounyan, a real person who was known as Titty all her life.
Sophie Neville playing Able Seaman Titty.
One Arthur Ransome enthusiast wrote: “Random thought, as it’s on @TalkingPicsTV tomorrow, but why has there never been a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ board game? There’s a brilliant strategy game somewhere in there.”
Whilst clearing out my mother’s house recently we found a few letters written by my parents to my great aunt in June 1973. They report on the progress of making the original EMI movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in the Lake District.
Stephen Grendon as the Boy Roger, Sophie Neville as Able-seaman Titty and Simon West playing Captain John Walker beside Derwentwater in 1973 ~ photo: Daphne Neville
My mother had been given headed writing paper designed for members of the production to use on location by Brian Doyle, who managed the film publicity.
It looks as if my father used his children’s felt pens.
It is interesting to learn how much my sisters earned as film extras when they appeared in the scenes shot at Rio (Bowness on Windermere).
Kit Seymour and Jane Grendon watch the filming on the jetty whilst Tamzin and Perry Neville eat ice creams with the one man in Cumbria willing to have a short-back-and-sides. You can just see the period cars parked in the background
They made £5 a day, which was the same amount as the green parrot. I calculated that those of us with leading parts, who he describes as ‘the 6 children’ earned £7.50 a day. This was probably because we were only meant to be on set for a couple of hours. As Dad mentions, I effectively worked twelve-hour days but seemed to be thriving.
Until reading this letter, I didn’t know that the movie (or ‘picture’ as Mum called it) was originally due to be released in time for the Christmas holidays. It was launched in ABC Cinemas but not until April. You can read about the film’s release and premiere at what was then the ABC in Shaftesbury Avenue on my website here.
Sophie Neville, Sten Grendon, John Franklin-Robbins, Jack Wolgar, Suzanna Hamilton and Simon West looking at an adder in the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’
In 2024 a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ festival at Windermere Jetty near Bowness-on-Windermere in Cumbria was organised by The Arthur Ransome Society and Lakeland Arts. Such was the publicity that I was contacted by a Lakeland charcoal burner who kindly sent me a report on his last talk:
‘I, Brian Crawley, am currently President of the Coppice Association North West. In our late 50s, my wife and I embarked on a career change into coppicing, principally making barbecue charcoal. This presentation is not about earthburns in general, it is about but a specific site for them.
‘I had always been aware of the traditional way of making charcoal, ‘charcoal earthburns’ being a stack of wood covered with earth to limit the oxygen intake to the burn.
‘The receipt of a set of photographs of a charcoal earthburn from David Jones, who was a patient of my daughter’s, encouraged my interest in the subject. David’s photos were of an earthburn that had taken place in 1972 and were included in an extract from his book ‘A Lakeland Camera’.
‘I later discovered that the charcoal burn had taken place as a result of discussion between Mike Dow, who was Treasurer of Haybridge Nature Reserve in the Rusland Valley, and Mike Davies-Shiel, a prominent local archaeologist. They enticed local woodland worker Jack Allonby, who had a retired uncle Tyson Allonby, a charcoal burner, to do an earthburn. Jack was helped by Bill Norris who regularly helped local archaeologist Mike Davies-Shiel and lived in the same village as Jack. Mike Dow arranged that a film would be made of the burn and subsequently directed it. Bill Norris narrated it. I was put in touch with Mike Dow through our Coppice Association NW secretary Alan Shepley, who had worked with Mike Dow in earlier years, and I was given the “Charcoal Burners of High Furness” DVD, which I then played to the audience. It was not my way of doing earthburns, but was historically interesting. A photo of the charcoal burners of Furness is available on ebay here.
Our helper from Cumbria Woodlands with his 3 sons, John Allonby, Dan Sumner and June Norris with her husband
‘For many years I had been fascinated by the visit of the children in the movie Swallows and Amazons (1974) to the charcoal burners and had always wondered where it was filmed. A gentleman on a charcoal making course, which we ran, explained to us that he was there when it was made and took us to the site not far from where he lived at Ickenthwaite in the Rusland Valley. Myles Dickinson told us how amazed he was that they got a double decker bus up the lane to the site for the children’s classroom. However, our inspection of the site in Glass Knott wood on the very narrow, winding and steep Corker Lane up to Ickenthwaite, plus another look at the Mike Dow film and David Jones’s photos, convinced me that it was the correct location.
‘I can’t remember how I first got in touch with Sophie Neville, who played Titty in the 1974 film Swallows and Amazons, but she gives some interesting details about ‘The real Charcoal Burners – who we met whilst filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’.
John Franklin-Robbins playing Young Billy chatting to the real charcoal burner during a coffee break on the set of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ ~ photo: Daphne Neville
‘I was able to make some extra comments to the blog as well as a photograph the site many years after the filming. I then played a clip of their visit from the Swallows and Amazons film, being shown by courtesy of Studiocanal who own the rights.
‘It became my obsession to carry out another charcoal burn on the site and became significant in 2023 when I realised that the original filming had been in 1973, 50 years previously. This year also turned out to be the visit to the North West of the National Coppice Federation annual gathering.
The real charcoal burner outside the hut. Behind him the 35mm Panasonic camera is being mounted on a short section of track ~ photo: Daphne Neville
‘Glass Knott wood is now owned by the Lake District National Park Authority. Permission to carry out the burn was requested and eventually approved with enthusiasm. At the same time Dan Sumner was looking for instruction on how to do an earthburn and we agreed that this was a good time for me to show him how, and for him to be responsible for the burn and provide the timber. The burn took place two weeks before the gathering and we had a fascinating visit to the site from Jack Allonby’s son John together with Bill Norris’s daughter June who had lived in the same small village, Spark Bridge, 50 years ago. A young John Allonby had been at the site with his father during both filmings. We also had a visit from Myles Dickinson who still lives nearby. We had a few very good helpers and some other visitors from LDNPA, Cumbria Woodlands, Coppice Association North West, The Arthur Ransome Society and Ruslands Horizons.
Jack Allonby talking to Jack Woolgar who was playing Old Billy ~ photo: Daphne Neville
‘I then showed some photographs of the weekend’s successful event and a few photos of Sophie Neville’s blog on the web.
Arriving at the Charcoal Burners’. Jack Woolgar with Simon West, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville and Stephen Grendon ~ photo: Daphne Neville
‘To finish, I then showed a DVD of the Millenium Burn, actually held in 2001, at which I learned earthburns from Arthur Barker, who was supported by Alan Waters and his friend Mark, at a site a bit further up the Rusland Valley where Jack Allonby had been filmed doing another earthburn by Sam Hanna, which can now be seen on the internet.’
Earthburns presentation by Brian Crawley, NCFed Gathering Oct 2023
John Franklin-Robbins playing Young Billy with Sophie Neville, Stephen Grendon and the adder.
On Saturday 6th April at 2.00pm there will 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.
On Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th June 2024 a Swallows and Amazons Festival is being held at Windermere Jetty Museum near Bowness-on-Windermere in Cumbria hosted by Lakeland Arts and The Arthur Ransome Society. We are hoping that members of the cast and crew will be able to come and share their stories, including Kerry Darbishire (below) who still lives in Cumbria. Now a poet, she appeared in the opening scenes as Vicky’s nurse.
Kerry Darbishire who played Vicky’s nurse in ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974)
The Arthur Ransome Society is bringing Swallow and Amazon, the dinghies used in the film which they now own, along with Titmouse from ‘Coot Club’. The steamboats Osprey and Lady Elizabeth that appeared in the Rio scene of the 1974 film will be at Windermere Jetty. Hopefully the original Amazon owned by the Altounyan family, and Arthur Ransome’s own dinghy Coch-y-Bonddhu that he used as the model for Scarab will be there with the RNSA dinghies that played Swallow and Amazon in the 2016 movie. There may well be trips on MV Tern and the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway.
Sophie Neville with Titmouse – now beautifully renovated
Saturday 13th July – A screening of Swallows and Amazons (1974) at the Riverside Cinema in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
People who read the paperback on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ ask how I could remember what happened on each day in such detail, but I had the diaries I’d kept on location and was able to rewatch the film on my laptop, studying the detail.
Aged twelve, I was a little older than Simon West who played Captain John, so I was able to recall more. He now reckons that having my mother on location with me must have helped as we would have discussed each day at the time and would have naturally chatted about shared experiences. She also took hundreds of behind the scenes photos, along with home movie footage captured on her cine camera.
Daphne Neville with Sophie Neville while filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in Cumbria. Kit Seymour is walking along the jetty in the background.
Fans of the DVDs write in from all over the world offering encouragement: “I was able to catch up on Swallows and Amazons Forever! I’ve only been waiting a lot of decades to watch this. It was fabulous and you embodied Titty. I now need to re-read Ransome’s book and yours.” Suzie Eisfelder, Melbourne, Australia
Once screened in cinemas with ‘The Sting’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) has been labelled a Vintage Classic. The good thing about this is that the DVD includes an interesting Extras package. Here is one of the original reviews:
Sophie Neville 