Winter Holiday

Arthur Ransome

David R. Godine Publisher, 1988 - Juvenile Fiction - 350 pages

Lost in a blizzard on a frozen lake, a brother and sister, Dick and Dorothea Callum, are in great danger. It's Swallows and Amazons to the rescue (they hope) in this wintertime adventure.

The Ds (Dick and Dorothea) meet the Swallows and Amazons during the winter beside the lake and they all become great friends: joining together in ice skating, learning semaphore signals, refashioning an igloo, and building an ice sled. But a misunderstanding could lead to disaster as Dick and Dorothea head off across the frozen lake to a spot they have named the "North Pole." And, Nancy, the Amazon leader, is stuck at home with mumps.

Friendship and resourcefulness, dangers and rescues: Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series has stood the test of time. More than just great stories, each one celebrates independence and initiative with a colorful, large cast of characters. Winter Holiday (originally published in 1933) is the fourth title in the Swallows and Amazons series, books for children or grownups, anyone captivated by a world of adventure, exploration, and imagination.

Contents

• STRANGERS: 17
• SIGNALLING TO MARS: 29
• SKATING AND THE ALPHABET: 60
• SNOW: 76
• ARCTIC VOYAGE: 88
• LOST LEADER: 99
• IX: 110
• DOING WITHOUT NANCY: 119
• CRAGFAST SHEEP: 130
• AMBULANCE WORK: 143
• TO SPITZBERGEN BY: 155
• NANCY TAKES A HAND: 171
• DAYS IN THE FRAM: 182
• XVI: 191
• NANCY SENDS A PICTURE: 201
• THE FRAM AT NIGHT: 211
• THE D S TAKE CHARGE: 224
• CAPTAIN NANCY GETS TWO BITS OF NEWS: 236
• CAPTAIN FLINT COMES HOME: 242
• NEXT MORNING: 256
• ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS IN THE SUBARCTIC MAP: 260
• THE USES OF AN UNCLE: 264
• FLAG AT BECKFOOT: 275
• COUNCIL IN THE FRAM: 291
• THE NORTH POLE: 306
• CAPSIZED AND DISMASTED: 311
• TO THE RESCUE: 322
• ARCTIC NIGHT: 332
• AND AFTERWARDS: 344

Popular passages

Page 2 - COOT CLUB PIGEON POST WE DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA SECRET WATER THE BIG SIX MISSEE LEE THE PICTS AND THE MARTYRS GREAT NORTHERN?‎

Page 11 - We adored the place. Coming to it, we used to run down to the lake, dip our hands in and wish, as if we had just seen the new moon. Going away from it, we were half drowned in tears. While away from it, as children and as grown-ups, we dreamt about it. No matter where I was, wandering about the world, I used at night to look for the North Star and, in my mind's eye, could see the beloved skyline of great hills beneath it. Swallows and Amazons grew out of those old memories. I could not help writing...‎

Page 32 - Battle of Bannockburn, 1314. Bows and arrows.' Dorothea was off again. But Dick was no longer listening. One hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second. Sixty times as far as that in a minute. Sixty times sixty times as far as that in an hour. Twenty-four hours in a day. Three hundred and sixty-five days in a year. Not counting leap years. And then three hundred years of it. Those little stars that seemed to speckle a not too dreadfully distant blue ceiling were farther away than he could make...‎

Page 11 - I have often been asked how I came to write Swallows and Amazons. The answer is that it had its beginning long, long ago when, as children, my brother, my sisters and I spent most of our holidays on a farm at the south end of Coniston. We played in or on the lake or on the hills above it, finding friends in the farmers and shepherds and charcoal-burners whose smoke rose from the coppice woods along the shore. We adored the place. Coming to it, we used to...‎

Page 28 - What's the good of thinking about them?" said Dorothea. "They might as well be in some different world." Dick started so sharply that he almost dropped his telescope. "Why not? Why not?‎

About the author

Arthur Ransome spent his childhood in England's Lake District, and after a career in journalism that took him to Russia (where he married Trostsky's secretary), China, and Egypt (interspersed with summers of cruising through the Baltic Sea and the canals of Europe), he retired to Coniston where he could practice his favorite pastimes of sailing and fishing and where he wrote the Swallows and Amazons series.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Winter Holiday; Godine storyteller; Volume 4 of Swallows and Amazons Series, Arthur Ransome
• Author: Arthur Ransome
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher, 1988
• ISBN: 0879236612, 9780879236618
• Length: 350 pages
• Subjects: Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / General; Juvenile Fiction / Classics; Juvenile Fiction / Concepts / Seasons; Juvenile Fiction / Sports & Recreation / Camping & Outdoor Activities