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
Nancy Blackett chance, being so much dominated by Nancy". When Ransome was first writing "Swallows and Amazons" in 1928, it was unusual for a female character to display such active leadership over males as Nancy Blackett does in the whole series of books and whilst children in children's literature had become increasingly self-motivated towards the end of the 19th century, they were, until Swallows and Amazons, still largely bounded by a "closed nursery-orientated world". In "Secret Water", Daisy the leader of the "Eels" is their leader, although younger than her brothers Dum and Dee. Nevertheless, despite writing Nancy in an unconventional role,