Swallows and Amazons (2016 film) of 6.7/10. On Metacritic, the film received a score of 65 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Writing in British daily newspaper "The Daily Telegraph", Lewis Jones noted that Arthur Ransome had written in his diary: "Saw the ghastly mess they have made of poor old "Swallows and Amazons"" after watching the BBC's 1962 series. Jones added, "I think he might have liked Philippa Lowthorpe's forthcoming film, though, which is true to the spirit of his book, and so attentive to period detail that at one point Mrs Walker smokes a cigarette". Jones outlined the
Swallows and Amazons series discussion and theorising about precise relationships. This contributes strongly to the series' air of authenticity. The first book, "Swallows and Amazons", and four sequels — "Swallowdale", "Winter Holiday," "Pigeon Post" and "The Picts and the Martyrs" — are set in and around an unnamed lake in the English Lake District. Most of the unfinished "Coots in the North" would also have been set on the lake had Ransome completed it before his death. The lake and the surrounding fells are based on an amalgam of Windermere and Coniston Water, places where Ransome spent much of his childhood and later life.