Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome (1944)

Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome. Published by Johathan Cape, 1944. Hardcover. Used, Good condition. 359 pp.

Winter Holiday is the fourth novel of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1933. In this story, the third set of major characters in the series, the D's - Dick and Dorothea Callum - are introduced. The series' usual emphasis on boats and sailing is largely absent, as the story is set in the winter. Instead, the children's activities focus on ice skating, signalling with semaphore and Morse code, and sledging.

Ransome draws on his schoolday memories of the Great Frost of 1895 when Windermere froze completely. Another major influence is Fridtjof Nansen's books about his crossing of Greenland in 1888 and his Arctic expedition from 1893 to 1896 in the Fram and by sledge, which are extensively referenced in the novel.

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