Vol. 2, Issue 1 · Spring 2019 ISSN 2514-2070 DOI: 10.24877/r .45 Dis ri!u e" un"er ## B% 4.0 U' “For ever and ever”: The Nostalgic Appeal of Swallows and Amazons ()I*+$(,- .(S, 1 INTRODUCTION When Titty was renamed Tatty in the 2016 BBC flm adaptation of Arthur Ran- some’s Swallows and Amazons frst pu!lished in 1"#0$% there was ine&itabrle com- mentary in the media. What sad re)ection was this on modern society% that somethin* as innocent as a *irl’s name a name ori*inally li+ed !y Ransome from the daughter of a family friend$ must bre chan*ed for fear of smutty innu- endo and sni**erin* at the brack of the cinema? The niece of Ma&is Altounyan% widely credited as Ransome’s inspiration for Titty% wrote a letter to The Telegraph in 2016 whi'h was /uoted across the British press. The name chan*e was, she li!abeth #est is / 0hD rese/r21er / 1e Uni3ersi 4 o5 6e/ding, loo7ing / "epi2 ions o5 rur/l 2ul- ure in 8id-20 1 2en ur4 2hildren9s li er/ ure. .or7ing wi 1 6e/ding9s Spe2i/l #olle2 ions, p/r i2u- larly he $ri is1 0ublishing Ar2hi3e /n" he Museum o5 6ur/l )i5e 2olle2 ions, she is e</8ining 1e :or7s o5 /uthors suc1 /s Ar hur 6/nso8e /n" Eni" $ly on, /longside 5orgo en e< s 1/ :ere pop- ular in 1e perio" !ut /re no: long out o5 prin . S1e 2o8ple e" /n ;+ in ,1e #hild: )i er/ ure, )/n- guage /n" -is or4 / he Uni3ersi 4 o5 Glou2es ershire in 2011, /2hie3ing / Dis in2 ion. -er ;+ dis- ser / ion e<plore" 1e 21/nging depi2 ion o5 5oo" in 2hildren9s li er/ ure 5ro8 he Se2on" .orld ./r o he presen . She is p/r i2ularly in eres e" in he :/4 in whi21 2hildren9s li er/ ure in erse2 s wi 1 1e 2ultur/l /n" so2iologi2/l 2on e< o5 1e i8e in :hi21 i is produ2e" /n" ho: i 2/n re5le2 2on e8por/r4 a i udes and con2erns. said% 0political 'orrectness1% which 0runs the risk of lea&in* audiences ignorant of the innocence and charm of Arthur Ransome’s 'hildren’s no&el1 /td( in 2urness n( pag.$( The subrstitution of Tatty for Titty% and 3 in what was arguabrly the greater librerty taken !y the flm’s writers 3 the insertion of an entirely new plot strand centrin* on a Russian spy ring, captured the headlines. 4owe&er% the flm’s most stri,in* departure from the ori*inal no&el is its portrayal of adults and 'hil- dren% broth indi&idually and in relation to each other( The flm in&ites us to probr- lematise 'ontemporary childhood !y comparin* it to the depiction of children’s experiences as portrayed in the world of Swallows and Amazons( The fact that Ransome’s story is considered worthy of a new flm adapta- tion su**ests that his writin* has transmuted into a legacy that is remembrered and recognised e&en !y those who may ne&er ha&e read the ori*inal te5ts. 4is collection of no&els has brecome part of the 67’s heritage and the landscape he portrays is as intrinsically important as the 'haracters within it( Another con'lu- sion that can bre drawn from the latest iteration of Swallows and Amazons in flm is that% at this point in time, adult audiences are more in&ested in his wor, than 'hildren are. As 8eter 4unt obrser&es, Ransome’s no&els ha&e 0reached the stage where adult nostal*ia is takin* o&er from children9s enthusiasm1 and it is this particular attraction that is exploited !y the producers of this latest flm adapta- tion, which taps into adult memories of 'hildhood readin* and experience 122$( $ %O# ADU&T R '(ON' ' TO SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS R F& CT C%I&D%OOD ) )ORI ' AND NO'TA&*IA The fact that adult audiences retain a proprietorial interest in Ransome is a reason why the chan*es to his ori*inal story spar,ed such interest% and demon- strates the continuin* hold that nostalgia and memory ha&e upon adults’ cultural breliefs. :ostal*ia has the power to e&oke stron* memories of childhood which% in turn% can lead to 'omparisons with the way in whi'h childhood is 'onstru'ted today( The pubrli'ity the new flm *arnered not to mention the fact that it was made in the frst place$ points to the continuin* &alue placed on Ransome’s wor,% nearly ninety years since its frst pubrlication( 2rom the outset% Swallows and Amazons was recognised as a !ook worthy of adult attention; the frst edition was re&iewed !y Malcolm .u**erid*e in the The Manchester Guardian 21 <uly 1"#0$ at a time when% as Eleanor >raham obrser&ed in her recollections of the 'hildren’s !ook-trade in the early 1"#0s, 0there was 2 6oun",/!le · Vol. 2, Issue 1 · Spring 2019 &irtually no re&iewing of 'hildren9s brooks1 10?$( =&en then% .u**erid*e acknow- led*ed the duality that occurs when readin* a children’s brook as an adult@ 0An adult has to refer brack to his own childhood and ask himself@ Would A ha&e en- Boyed such a brook then- The answer% in the case of Swallows and Amazons% is &ery defnitely% Ces1( n( pag.$ .u**erid*e *oes on to praise Ransome’s abrility to write abrout children without patronisin* them, yet, to his mind, realistically, for 0noth- in* makes drearier readin* than the conscious Bu&enility of adults1 n( pag.$( As this /uality of writin* the reason for continued adult attention and loy- alty to this series abro&e those of Ransome’s other contemporaries, many of whom ha&e not enBoyed the same le&el of attention !y subrsequent *enerations- Ransome’s closest competitor in terms of sales and endurin* appeal is Enid Blyton% and adult attitudes to her brooks are *enerally far less afectionate or re- spectful% despite some recent rehabrilitation within academia, prompted !y the wor, of scholars such as Ea&id Rudd( While Blyton’s su!Bect matter 3 groups of 'hildren embrar,ing upon adult-free ad&entures 3 and lar*ely rural setting might share superfcial similarities, Ransome and Blyton had &ery diDerent approaches to their craf( Blyton’s techni/ue, as the self-proclaimed 0children9s Fheroine’” was to 0brecome1 a child% to position herself within their world and write from that perspecti&e n( pag.$( Ransome, in contrast, insisted that he wrote for himself% and that the resultin* te5t appealed to 'hildren was somethin* !eyond his control@ And now then% abrout this writin* for children( A ,now abrsolutely nothin* abrout it% for the &ery simple reason that A :=GER :=GER do it( 6nless A am writin* somethin* that is *ood fun 2HR .=% not for somebrody else, A can- not write at all( The children who read my brooks are ne&er addressed( A don’t e&en ,now they are there. They merely o&erhear me lar,in* abrout for my own fun, not for theirs Signalling from Mars 2IJ$( Children can enBoy broth approaches, brut adults grow out of Blyton’s fctional world% whereas they can retain pleasure, albreit of a more detached /uality% in Ransome’s wor, !y continuin* to listen to children as they perform within the narrati&e. 6nli,e Blyton’s wor,% Ransome’s use of language and characterisation is nuanced enough to reward adult re-readin*( 2or example, in Swallows and Amazons, when Titty, lef alone on the island, wa&es her mother *ood!ye: She lay down on the look-out point% and wat'hed mother throu*h the tele- scope. Suddenly she found that she could not see her( She !lin,ed% pulled (. Wes · “?or e3er an" e3er@: T1e Nos /lgi2 Appe/l o5 Swallows and Amazons A out her hand,erchief% and wiped frst the telescope glass and then her eye. FEuDer%’ she said( FThat’s with lookin* too hard( Try the other eye.’ 201$ A argue howe&er that the reason for Swallows and Amazons’ continuing pop- ularity with adults is less to do with su'h re-readin* of the text( Hf more rele&- ance is its power to resurrect memories 3 either of ad&entures or holidays, or simply of childhood responses to the brook( Any !ook as a material obrject can e&oke Bust as stron* a response as its contents; a tattered brook co&er has the power to transport readers !ack to their frst encounter with the text in /uite a &isceral way( Whether re-disco&erin* an original copy or pi',in* a new edition of a broo,shop shelf, these adult experiences of re-readin* the broo,, or re&isitin* the story &ia a flm adaptation% can prompt thoughts of the contrast !etween re- membrered childhood and the way in which children are percei&ed to li&e within contemporary society( A will explore this di'hotomy in more detail later in this paper( Alongside indi&idual responses prompted !y personal experiences and memories, what Swallows and Amazons also represents is nostal*ia for a time that% e&en if not directly experienced !y indi&idual readers, is instin'ti&ely missed on a 0national cultural le&el1 Wat,ins 16I$( Tied in with this idea are concerns abrout the en&ironmental impact of modern agricultural methods on the countryside, highli*hted in reports such as the RK8B’s State of Nature 2016, which asserted that 0LmMany factors ha&e resulted in chan*es to the 67’s wildlife o&er recent decades, !ut policy-dri&en agricultural 'han*e was !y far the most signifcant dri&er of declines1 6$( Runnin* parallel to this are concerns, &oiced !y organisations such as wal,in* and cy'lin* charity Kustrans in its 2010 Free Range Kids report% of the 0loss of habritat1 in which 'hildren can experience independent% outdoor ad&en- tures 2$( Cet these worries are not uni/ue to the twenty-frst century( Andeed Ransome, in the &iew of some critics, was nostal*i' e&en as he was writin*( Gi'tor Watson% for example, obrser&es that Ransome’s wor,% li,e others in what Watson has defned as the 0campin* and trampin*1 *enre so popular in this period% rep- resented 0a sustained and essentially adult elegy on a massi&e scale for dearly lo&ed and &anishin* rural ways of life, mediated through fction intended for youn* readers1 I"$( .o&in* to the present% readings of Ransome’s wor, % most recently <ulian Lo&elock’s Swallows, Amazons and Coots 2016$% continue to /uestion how Ran- some’s depiction of a &anished world resonates with modern audiences.