Camping and Tramping, Swallows and Amazons: Interwar Children’s Fiction and the Search for England Hazel Sheeky A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Newcastle University May 2012 Abstract For many in Britain, the interwar period was a time of significant social, political and cultural anxiety. In the aftermath of the First World War, with British imperial power apparently waning, and with the politics of class becoming increasingly pressing, many came to perceive that traditional notions of British, and particularly English, identity were under challenge. The interwar years saw many cultural responses to the concerns these perceived challenges raised, as seen in H. V. Morton’s In Search of England (1927) and J. B. Priestley’s English Journey (1934). The sense of socio-cultural crisis was also registered in children’s literature. This thesis will examine one significant and under-researched aspect of the responses to the cultural anxieties of the inter-war years: the ‘camping and tramping’ novel. The term ‘camping and tramping’ refers to a sub-genre of children’s adventure stories that emerged in the 1930s. These novels focused on the holiday leisure activities – generally sailing, camping and hiking - of largely middle-class children in the British (and most often English) countryside. Little known beyond Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’ novels (1930-1947), this thesis undertakes a full survey of camping and tramping fiction, developing for the first time a taxonomy of this sub-genre (chapter one). It also investigates the cultural meanings of the principal activities that quickly became characteristic of camping and tramping novels (chapter two). Besides this survey and accompanying analysis, this thesis also undertakes a thorough examination of the contexts of camping and tramping fiction. It firmly situates camping and tramping novels within the socio-cultural debates and anxieties from which they emerged and with which they continually engaged. Chapter three concentrates on how camping and tramping fiction responded to the challenges posed by the democratisation of leisure and particularly demands for more open access to the countryside. Chapter four is also focused on exploration of the land, but examines the novels through the lens of contemporary colonial and cartographic discourses. Chapter five turns to consider more specifically the maritime traditions with which camping and tramping fiction engaged, in particular Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’ series. It is argued throughout this thesis that camping and tramping fiction responded to perceived challenges to Britishness by creating a powerful myth of nationhood as rooted in rural and, maritime traditions. This reformulation sought to manage changes to national identity by endorsing largely middle-class social and cultural agendas and validating middle-class values. This thesis argues for the cultural significance of camping and tramping fiction, something previously largely unnoticed. These novels were fully engaged in the social, cultural and political debates of the time and, as such, can be viewed as both reflecting contemporary cultural anxieties and as helping to construct new narratives of national identity. Acknowledgements Many people have given me a great deal of help and support over the last three and a half years. Thanks go to my supervisors Dr Matthew Grenby and Dr Alastair Bonnett at Newcastle, for their advice and guidance - as it does to all the members of Newcastle’s Children’s Literature Research Unit, particularly Dr Kimberly Reynolds, Madelyn Travis, Anthony Pavlik and Kate Wright for all their support and encouragement. I am also extremely grateful to the National Maritime Museum, particularly to my supervisor Dr Nigel Rigby and to Dr Quintin Colville whose advice, encouragement and enthusiasm for the Royal Navy has been inspiring. Many thanks also go to Dr James Davy, Janet Norton and Sally Archer for being supportive and welcoming during my time at the museum. In particular thanks go to my friends and fellow students who have read and commented on my work. To that end, my gratitude goes to Anthony Pavlik, Josephine Bird, Simon Moore and Katie Rees. Many thanks go to Lucy Pearson for organising my mock viva and to Barbara Henderson, Leanne Stokoe, Marie Stern-Peltz, Mary Clarke, Chris Machell, Helen Williams and Beatrice Turner for helping me with this. Special thanks go to my very good friends Kate Wright and Helen Stark who read multiple chapters, helped me prepare for the viva and were generally so lovely and encouraging in every way possible. Paula Wride and Hannah Green at Seven Stories have also been a fantastic help, letting me loose in the book stacks and helping me gain permission to use images from the Elinor Lyon and Harold Jones archives. Thanks also go to the estates of Elinor Lyon and Harold Jones for letting me use such wonderful artwork in my thesis. Niall Taylor and Peter Devenish of the H. V. Morton Society were equally kind, helping me locate the original dust jacket for Morton’s In Search of England. Many, many thanks go to James Mackenzie who has been generous with both his time and knowledge and without whom I would definitely never have read any Dempster Heming and much more. Finally, thanks to all my family but especially my mum, who has supported me throughout this work. And of course to Josh, who I made read everything at least twice and whose house I have now filled with musty children’s books. Contents Chapter One- Introduction to Camping and Tramping Fiction 1.1 An Overview of Camping and Tramping Fiction……………………………………… 6 1.2 Who were campers and trampers?…………………..................................................... 14 1.3 The Open-Air .…………………………………………………………..…………......18 1.4 Key Motifs: Sailing…………………………………………………………………... 23 1.5 Key Motifs: The Gypsy Vardo……………………………………………………….. 25 1.6 Key Motifs: The Farm………………………………………………………………... 28 1.7 Realism and Reception……………………………………………………………….. 31 1.8 Critical Reception and the Holiday Adventure Story……………………………….... 35 1.9 Malcolm Saville and Enid Blyton……………………………………………………. 37 1.10 Identifying the canon: Methodology………………………………………………... 39 1.11 Outline of Thesis……………………………………………………………………. 41 Chapter Two – Camping and Tramping 2.1 Camping and Tramping………………………………………………………………. 44 2.2 Taming the Wilds: Domesticated Camping………………………………………….. 48 2.3 Susan Walker, the Campfire and Communalism……………………………………... 54 2.4 The Romance of Wayfaring.......................................................................................... 61 2.5 The ‘Waggonner’ Novels…………………………………………………………….. 71 Chapter Three – The Search for England 3.1 The Search for England in the Interwar Years……………………………………….. 80 3.2 A Pastoral Arcadia?....................................................................................................... 82 3.3 Blots on the Landscape……………………………………………………………….. 87 3.4 Modern Culture and Mass Tourism………………………………………………........91 3.5 The Open-Air and the Anti-Citizen…………………………………………………. 104 3.6 Camping and Tramping Fiction and the Search for England………………………....110 1 Chapter Four- Mapping the Exploratory Geographical Imagination 4.1 Imperial Geographic Imaginations………………………………………………….. 121 4.2 The Use and Abuse of Maps in Camping and Tramping Novels……………............ 124 4.3 Cartography and Power: Elinor Lyon’s The House in Hiding (1950) and ‘Island Adventures’ c. 1939…………………………………………………………………….. 130 4.4 Imperial Imaginations in Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Richard Jefferies’ Bevis (1882)…………………………………………………………………………………… 134 4.5 Negotiated Territories in The Far Distant Oxus (1937)…………………………….. 140 4.6 M. E. Atkinson and the Seeing Man Position………………………………………. 143 4.7 The ‘Swallows and Amazons’ novels and the Imperial Geographic Imagination….. 145 4.8 A New Perspective on Discovery: Great Northern? (1947)………………………... 158 Chapter Five – Service, Sexism and Class Relations in the Family Sailing Story 5.1 The Sailing Family……………………………………………………………………163 5.2 Communities of Sailors……………………………………………………………... 166 5.3 Constructing Exclusivity: The Implications of Cruising…………………………..... 171 5.4 Social Division: Language, Space, Ratings and Officers…………………………….175 5.5 Mates Not Captains: Sailing Girls………………………………………………….. 176 5.6 Undermining Captain Nancy Blackett……………………………………………… 179 5.7 ‘Swallows and Amazons’ and the Nelson Tradition………………………………... 182 5.8 Keeping it in the Family: The Naval Tradition of Service………………………….. 186 5.9 Naval Cadets: The Dick Valliant and Peter Clayton Novels………………………. 189 5.10 The Embryo Nelson: John Walker………………………………………………... 193 5.11 The Rebellion of Roger Walker…………………………………………………... 199 Chapter Six- Conclusion………………………………………………………………..206 Bibliography Manuscript Material and Primary Sources……………………………………………………………………………………213 Secondary Sources…………………………………………………………………………………....220 2 Figures Chapter One - Introduction to Camping and Tramping Fiction Figure 1.1: Graph showing the number of book reviews per genre in The Junior Bookshelf between the years, 1936-1960………………………………………………….…...12 Figure 1.2: original artwork by Harold Jones for M. E. Atkinson’s Mystery Manor, from the Harold Jones Collection, c. 1937, Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books, Newcastle, HJ-01-02-02 A………………………………………….…………………19 Figure 1.3: ‘The Staircase’ by J. Kiddell- Monroe for David Severn, The Cruise of the