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.
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.
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.
Can you tell us when and where you were born?
I arrived two weeks early and was born at home, delivered by my great-grandmother in my parents’ cottage, the Old Bakery in the village of Clent in Worcestershire in 1960. Tell Laura I Love Her and Save the Last Dance For Me were top of the charts.
Can you give us background on your parents and what they did for a living?
My father worked in Press and Publicity at BIP where he launched fibre glass boat manufacturing by setting up an experimental workshop in Covent Garden. My mother married on her 21st birthday just before graduating from RADA. She was in the same year as Susannah York and the playwright Hugh Whitmore, but took a break in her career to get married and have us children.
Do you have any siblings?
I have three little sisters, so I was never lonely. Perry had a small part in the classic HTV series Arthur of The Britains and later played the teacher in Bernard’s Watch. Tamzin had leading roles in six television productions playing Elka in Arthur of the Britons, Anthea in The Phoenix and the Carpet and Linda in Love in a Cold Climate with Judi Dench and Michael Aldridge playing her parents.
My adopted sister Mary-Dieu suffered from polio as a baby so was in hospital a lot or on crutches, but appeared as a film extra in Abide With Me and the wartime drama Tenko, which she enjoyed.
Where were you schooled and were you academic?
I am a visual learner and could have gone to art college but concentrated on English, history and geography, going on to read anthropology with ethnography and psychology, subjects I draw on continuously as a writer. The most useful subject I took at university was cartography. All the best books contain maps and I draw my own.
Did you have any early career aspirations and did you go onto further education?
I went to the University of Durham, where I made wonderful friends including Alastair Fothergill who produced Our Planet and most of Sir David Attenborough’s iconic serials, along with a number of wildlife movies for Disney. I missed my viva – an oral aspect of my Finals – because I opted to go filming in the Charmague, but would you turn down that opportunity? We went on to film in Kenya and recce locations in Zaire and Uganda.
Where did your creative flair and love for acting and writing come from?
We are all born to create. There are times when I have been tempted to take a more managerial path but I feel called to write, so that’s what I do.
Did you come from a creative family?
My father loved design concepts and developed products with his team at work, notably the cable tie. You find them everywhere now. My mother has always held a burning desire to act and brought out a children’s book in the 1980s, which is still in print. I feel she has more talent as a writer than an actress but she loves the social aspect of filming. At the age of 85, she appeared in Top Boy and was involved in filming The Repair Shop when they visited Denville Hall, the actors’ retirement home in November 2025.
How did you manage to get your lucky break as an actress?
I was able to play the piano. I took my music along, practiced seven or eight hours a day, and did what I was told.
Can you recall your first acting credit?
As a child, I appeared as a film extra in classic drama serials such as The Changes and Arthur of the Britons but gained my first acting credit as Eileen Brown in the BBC play Cider With Rosie, adapted by Hugh Whitmore. I had my hair chopped off for my first movie, and went on to act in a few more productions.
Your C.V. covers several areas including behind the scenes television and film related roles. Let’s start at the beginning of your career and find out what inspired you to become an actress and did you have any early influences?
I wasn’t so much inspired as simply offered an amazing opportunity, which is exceptionally rare. I was invited to an interview to appear in an adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s book, Swallows and Amazons when I was aged twelve. Of all the parts in all the books, I was asked if I would like to play Titty. How could I turn that down? I loved the Lake District, enjoyed camping and was happy in a boat. I did it for fun.
Swallows and Amazons is a classic family film released in 1974. Can you tell us about your experiences working on the film? What are your overriding memories and what does the film mean to you personally?
It proved hard work and involved a lot of hanging around in the cold, but I loved the period aspect and thrived spending time outdoors on location. Filming on Derwentwater was amazing. We had our own desert island, pine trees to climb and a houseboat to attack. Making Ronald Fraser walk the plank was fun. He did it rather well.
You’ve written two books on your experiences of working on Swallows and Amazons: The Making of Swallows and Amazons and The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons. What made you decide to write two books on the film and were your memories still fresh and vivid when recounting the stories?
I had the amazing cine footage that my parents took behind-the-scenes on location that they BBC put on a DVD when they made Countryfile and Big Screen Britain, presented by Ben Fogle. I’d already set up my own publishing company and was employing a formatter who suggested we brought The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons as a multi-media ebook, including this unique footage and my parents photos (that you would never be allowed to take on location these days). This did so well as an ebook that it was picked up by the publisher Classic TV Press. They gained permission to add official stills from the film and brought it out as a large paperback with colour plates entitled The Making of Swallows and Amazons. It was then bought by The Lutterworth Press who re-designed it in 2017.
How were your books on Swallows and Amazons received by fans and critics?
Each edition had been received with huge enthusiasm. I had terrific publicity in the Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail and am hugely appreciative of all the book reviews left by readers online. I didn’t want to spoil the magic of the film but nearly fifty years have passed since it first came out and fans like to visit the locations. I’ve included maps and all the information needed to find them.
Can I ask your take on the film’s fanbase, how it’s regularly shown and embraced by new audiences? What do you think is the film’s overall appeal?
Being a family classic, as you say, it has become generational. People who originally watched it in the cinema in 1974 want their children and children’s children to see it. When an audience of 250 piles into a cinema to see the re-mastered version, you can appreciate what an amazing landscape movie it is. The humour is drawn out when you watch it with an audience, which is wonderful and you emerge from the auditorium feeling elated.
You’ve appeared in several classic television serials and programmes: Crossroads, The Two Ronnies and Cider With Rosie. What are your memories from working on those shows and did that exposure lead to other opportunities?
I didn’t realise that Ronnie Baker directed the Two Ronnies, or at least the Charley Farley and Piggy Malone serial with in it. He inspired me to direct comedy. I adored working with him and only wish we’d done more together. He had me for an informal interview on location one lunchtime. I blew it, but did end up directing a bit of comedy at the BBC.
6. Who have you enjoyed working with the most in front and behind the camera? Have any of your colleagues acted as mentors and have you gained greater knowledge about the industry from any of them?
So many! Suzanna Hamilton and Anthony Calf are the actors I’d want to work with again. They brought out the best in me. Claude Whatham was the mentor who advised me before I went for my first interview to work in television production. He said, ‘Filming is all about using your time well.’ Writers are wonderful about sharing every tiny piece of knowledge but my own formatter Lisa Skullard mentored me on new technology, for which I am grateful.
7. What made you decide to make the transition from an actress to a behind-the scenes member?
Even as a child I was more interested in the logistics and production side of making dramas.
Can you talk about some of the projects you’ve worked on including being an assistant floor manager of EastEnders, My Family and Other Animals, Bluebell, Doctor Who along with your directing and producing credits?
I was very fortunate to work in BBC Drama Series and Serials at the very zenith of production in the 1980s. It was such a privilege to work on My Family and Other Animals as it was made entirely on location in Corfu. I helped cast the little boy and did the research, interviewing Gerald Durrell, who came out on location with his lovely wife Lee Durrell. I carried out the historical and film research on Miss BlueBell’s life and met her in Paris where we filmed one summer. I also worked on the zoo vet series One by One, and became a location manager on Rockcliffe’s Babies. Producing my own series, INSET, shot in Cumbria, Wiltshire and Sheffield was unforgettable. I had such a good team and we were in a position to do ground-breaking work.
You are an award-winning writer with several books to your credit. What made you decide to become a published author and of the books you’ve written, which are you most proud of and why?
Writing Funnily Enough was a huge challenge. I felt I was laying my whole life out before the world. It’s a dark comedy. As all the stories expose my friends and family, I opted to self publish so that I could make changes. My brother-in-law was working in Libya and I didn’t want him to be shot. In the end I was only asked to change the name of a town and the names of three characters. I’ve changed them back now. My brother-in-law now regularly talks about his book on Libya on Sky Television.
9. How does the creative writing process work for you? How long does it take you to prepare and plan a book and do you have a set time for writing?
I need at least two years to write, edit and develop a novel, even though I put in about eight hours work a day. I often start at 6.30am and am a complete work-aholic. Only other writing, such as articles, and inevitable admin get in the way. My husband has to do the shopping.
We’ve spoken about the many areas and capacities you’ve worked in: Acting, a floor manager, a researcher, producer, director and a published author. Do you have a favourite discipline and if so, why?
I loved every aspect of directing – felt as if I was flying – but you need huge stamina and total application. My husband needs me at home, so writing is an easier career path to follow although I travel quite a bit giving talks and conducting research.
11. Away from your creative endeavours, can we discuss some of your other loves and interests: Anthropology, your love of animals, charity work and archery.
My family have kept tame otters for almost forty years, hand-rearing abandoned babies and lecturing on conservation. I am now Patron of the UK Wild Otter Trust. I emigrated to southern Africa in 1992 and ended up volunteering on a number of projects, helping to set up a charity to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. One million people still die from AIDS every year. We continue to run HIV prevention and awareness in schools, employing a nurse to care for those on anti-retrovirals and keep an eye on the orphans, many of whom are in their teens.
I learnt to shoot with a long bow on the set of Swallows and Amazons. This was pivotable as it led to a leading role in an adventure movie, The Copter Kids, with Sophie Ward and Vic Armstrong. The sport also introduced me to my husband. He was Chairman of the archery society my parents belonged to.
Can I also ask you what made you decide to emigrate to South Africa and can you tell us about your 12-years living there?
You’ll have to read my books, ‘Funnily Enough’ and ‘Ride the Wings of Morning’. Every details lies within the pages.
Final Questions to Finish Interview
1. What’s your favourite past time? Walking along beaches
2. What’s your favourite film and why? I have to admit that Swallows and Amazons (1974) is a nostalgia trip for me. It’s been described as ‘mesmerizing’.
3. Who’s your favourite novelist? Karen Rosario Ingerslev
4. If you could have had a different profession what would it have been? Mother
5. Who has been your greatest inspiration in life? Jesus
6. Do you read a newspaper? If so which one? The Telegraph
7. What’s your favourite food? Black cherries
8. Who is your favourite cultural icon? Virginia McKenna
9. What’s your favourite curse word and why? I try not to swear
10. What’s your favourite place or holiday destination? The Okavango Delta
11. Who is your favourite music artist and what’s your favourite album? Cat Stevens greatest hits
12. What’s your greatest achievement to date? Publishing Funnily Enough and finishing my historical novels.
13. How do you wish to be remembered? As an inspiration to others.
A book signed by the author always makes a good Christmas present. Each year, I take part in an annual online charity auction organised by Children in Read to raise funds for BBC Children in Need.
You can scroll through the site on Jumblebee. co.uk. and choose from an amazing selection of biographies and other books donated by contemporary authors.
In 2025, I donated a signed and dedicated illustrated paperback copy of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’
It was accompanied by a signed print of Titty Walker played by Sophie Neville in ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) drawn by the artist Caroline Assheton
Funds raised go directly to BBC Children in Need
Paddy Heron, the fundraiser, has been advertising the event on Twitter
Taking part is always great fun and offers authors a bit of publicity whilst presenting readers a choice of signed and dedicated books and illustrations.
There are always many bargains to be had
In 2023, items in the Authors and Illustrators’ auction, raised a total of £24,061 for BBC Children in Need.
This year, authors and illustrators raised £9,766.
Over the eleven years that the annual event has been running a stunning total of £141,766 has been raised. I joined in 2020 and have raised a total of £616 for this cause.
Bidding has now closed but put the event in your diary for next year.
Thank you for supporting this great cause!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Having won prizes for archery, she taught the Amazons to shoot with a bow and arrow for their scene on Wild Cat Island.
She also took a vast collection of behind the scenes photos, some of which were very good.
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.
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.
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.
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.
While we hated the publicity that came with marketing the film, Mum embraced it to the full, collecting every newspaper and magazine article.
She took us to London for a Puffin Club show at the Commonwealth Institute devised by Kaye Webb,
and to the Lord Mayor’s Show when we rode on a float set up by EMI Films.
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.
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.
Daphne is currently staying at Denville Hall in Northwood, west London, with other retired actors. You can become a Friend of Denville Hall here.
A full account of making the original movie can be read on the ebook ‘The Secrets of Filming SWALLOWS and AMAZONS (1974)’ where you can read the first section free of charge.
Like Arthur Ransome, I have ‘lived many lives in one.’ He also wrote, ‘Memory picks and choses’. Here are a few unusual ones:
This gave me a fright: I was watching the ITV police series Broadchurch when I saw a photograph of me, aged seventeen, featured on screen. Only it wasn’t me. My face had been photo-shopped to look like a young Charlotte Rampling. Above is a screenshot. Here is the original:
No one had asked my permission, but what can I do but take it as a compliment?
Around this time I was briefly involved in the HTV series Kidnapped. I played a boy. But opposite David McCallum (The Man From U.N.C.L.E), so who was I to argue. And I was paid.
I got the part in an odd way. They had forgotten to cast anybody for the role, but the producer had previously cast my sister in Arthur of the Britons and knew we lived only a few miles from the location. I agreed on the morning the scene was shot.
I later stood in for the little boy who played Gerald Durrell in the first BBC drama series of My Family and Other Animals. Brian Blessed thought it hilarious. I was working behind the camera by that time but was skinny enough to squeeze into the costume.
I was once on a train when the director of Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners asked if I could get to Gloucestershire to clear out my mother’s attic. I ended up filming with him for the next three or four days. It was exhausting – and unpaid – but a lot of de-cluttering got done. Check the apron from Seville. I’d bought it on honeymoon.
Piratøen – is the title for Swallows and Amazons in Danish – seen here on a flier that I only came across recently. I’d just had my DNA analyzed to discover I am 3% Danish due to admixture a few generations back. Do I look Danish?
Although I’ve worked on over 100 films and tv programmes, I have mostly been behind the camera, so don’t expect anyone to know who I am. They don’t. The marketing executive at StudioCanal had not, at first, wanted me to help promote the remastered DVD of ‘Swallows and Amazons’, which is understandable as Dame Virginia McKenna has the star billing. Then she must have watched the ‘filmen for hele familien’. I ended up giving Q&As at twelve cinemas. Some had audiences of 250 and the screenings were so popular that customers were being turned away.
And yet when a friend of mine told a lady that I was in ‘Swallows and Amazons’ she smiled apologetically and said she’d keep ‘an eye out for me.’
‘Why are you here?’ I was asked at Windermere Jetty in Cumbria. We had gathered to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the release of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in cinemas. How should I have answered that question? I replied saying, ‘I’ve been asked to give talk.’
You can now listen to the story of how the original film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was made on Audible.
The HTV series ‘Kidnapped’ (1978) is available on YouTube. Blink and you miss me, but the music is wonderful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Instagram @sophienevilleauthor
Facebook sophie.nevlle.3 on Follow my Facebook author page
Susan Johnston can be found on IMDb
Sophie is currently a double-finalist in the Page Turner Awards
Having been released in cinemas in April 1974, the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was not accompanied by computer games but by puzzels, jigsaws and competitions. Here are a couple found recently whilst clearing out my mother’s house.
Few films are set in 1929, and yet it was that period, nearly a hundred years ago that gave the first film adaptation a certain style.
Graham Potter wrote saying: “I have just finished a DVD of S & A and found how much easier it is to see the details on the TV than in a cinema having to look from side to side. I was surprised to see how little sailing was shown and how the Amazons were not seen much. I think you were 12 or 13 at the time but looked younger. I have to to admit to enjoying the glimpses of the navy blue knickers in the opening scenes.”
Graham goes on to say, “I was surprised to see how you carried all the exciting scenes: left alone on the island, finding the secret harbour , dealing with leading lights , capturing and hiding Amazon, dealing with Mother’s visit during the night sailing, giving Captain Flint a good telling off for blaming John for firework and not listening to his warning about potential theft at his houseboat. Then the great finale when you are able to present him with his stolen life’s work in the trunk. Perhaps it was planned that you didn’t have too many lines to remember, as it enabled a very young girl to contribute such a lot to the film.”
This is very kind but I believe the film was made by the fact that Simon West who played John and Kit Seymour who played Nancy were good sailors. You can tell when they are sitting in a moored boat. While Claude Whatham was an exceptional director, ahead of his time stylistically, the director of photography uplifted the film by insisting we waited for clouds to pass. What else? – a hardworking and talented crew put together by Nevill Thompson. Simple costumes that never dated. Natural, well cut hair and a lack of make up – all the facets of filmmaking that you are not meant to notice.
Maybe our spiritedness as children carries the original film on. We are all in our sixties now, but the characters we played have become imaginary friends to many. As Shakespeare wrote, ‘Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air.’ The Tempest Would Ransome have agreed? I only know he discussed Shakespeare with Karl Radek.
I came across an essay in one of my school exercise books that I must have written aged twelve whilst on location. I was trying to explain that only about three minutes of what will be the finished film are captured during a long day’s filming on location. The piece is not well written.
We went on to learn about the Spanish Main, which may have been requested by Claude Whatham, the director of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ so that I would know what Titty was talking about. On 1st June 1973, I was on location in the Lake District filming in the capture of the Amazon in Secret Harbour on Peel Island.
Perhaps I should add these remenants to a future edition of ‘The Making of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974)’. You can order the illustrated paperback from libraries, find it for sale online, or listen to the audiobook:
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:
“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.”
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!’
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
The large, illustrated paperback can be purchased here.
Resolute Books are re-releasing Funnily Enough in 2025:
The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons:
Sophie Neville 