Secrets of Swallows and Amazons

Sophie Neville explains how her role as Titty in the Arthur Ransome classic forged a lifelong love for the iconic dinghy Swallow

- Sophie Neville

“Swallow is coming up for auction,” my father said, sending me the details of a clinker-built sailing dinghy stored at Twickenham.

It was the Spring of 2010. I rushed into our damp computer room, took one look at the online photographs and wept. The letters WK were carved into her transom. There was the 12ft, all-purpose, run-around vessel built by William King of Burnham-on-Crouch that had been purchased in 1973 to feature as Swallow in the original feature film of Arthur Ransome’s classic novel Swallows and Amazons. She looked a bit dried out, but remained an icon of British cinema.

I knew the little ship intimately. All those years ago, I’d played the part of Able-seaman Titty, sailing across Coniston Water wearing nothing but a thin cotton dress and thick navy-blue elasticated gym knickers. I was the one who stitched Swallow’s flag. She became part of my life back then and I longed to see her once again.

I’d grown up reading the books and could identify with Titty’s dream of emulating Robinson Crusoe cast away on a desert island. She became the heroine of Ransome’s classic adventure story when she grabbed a chance to capture the Amazon. This enabled the Swallows to win the war set to determine ‘who should be the flag-ship’. In mooring her prize overnight near Cormorant Island, Titty witnessed Captain Flint’s stolen treasure chest being buried, and was eventually able to rescue it. She was rewarded with the gift of a green parrot.