Look what I’ve found! A school exercise book containing essays written whilst we were filming on location in the Lake District making the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1973. I must have been asked to write about the first time we sailed the dinghies on Windermere.
I was twelve years old. Whilst the trans-Atlantic sailor David Blagden taught us how to handle Swallow and Amazon, my spelling was neatly corrected by Margaret Causey, a local supply teacher employed as our tutor. Since all six members of the cast were under the age of sixteen, we were legally obliged to complete at least three hours of schooling a day. This was tricky logistically, especially while filming out on the water.
My mother decided it would be acceptable if we completed fifteen hours a week, decided sketching action props would count as Art and that learning to sing sea shanties would do for Music lessons.
Since I was interested in the technical side of movie making, Mrs Causey had me recording my first impressions. I battled to express myself at first.
I’m not sure how my composition fitted in with the National Curriculum, but the director asked if we could be taught about a certain aspect of history in line with Arthur Ransome’s story.
Let me know if you’d like to see more.
My mother maintained that keeping a diary could replace English lessons.
Since this looked promising, journals were purchased and we began to keep daily accounts of who we met, what we did, and indeed what was said at the time, pasting accompanying artwork in to scrapbooks. How this enabled me to write my end of year exams I’m not sure, but I have a school report:
I doubt if the nuns at my convent ever saw the diary I kept but the result was a pretty comprehensive record of how we spent our time on location. I read extracts in the audio book of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’, now available on Audible.
Sophie Neville 