Swallows and Amazons (1974 film) Swallows and Amazons (1974 film) Swallows and Amazons is a 1974 British film adaption of the 1930 novel of the same name by Arthur Ransome. The film, which was directed by Claude Whatham and produced by Richard Pilbrow, starred Virginia McKenna and Ronald Fraser, and a young Zanna Hamilton. Its budget was provided by Nat Cohen of EMI Films who had funded the successful 1970 film "The Railway Children". During the school holidays, the Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger) are staying at a farm near a lake in the Lake District of England. While sailing a borrowed dinghy
Michael Irwin (author) wrote the lyrics for Brunel (opera project) and other original musical works. In 2013 he wrote a novel, "The Skull and the Nightingale", which has received a number of positive reviews. Fiction: Non-fiction: Irwin has four children, a daughter from his first marriage to Donia Etherington, and two daughters and a son with his wife Stella. The couple lives in Canterbury, Kent. Michael Irwin (author) Thomas Arthur Michael Irwin, (born 3 May 1934) is a British Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Kent and author of several works of fiction, as well as scholarly books. His 2013 novel,