Margot Pardoe supervision; as in Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons series", these often take place in a rural setting. However, there are some differences which set Pardoe's books, and the "Bunkle" series in particular, apart. The children do not live in a vacuum; unlike Blyton's St Clare's series, World War II is mentioned (with the associated inconveniences of rationing and black-out), and the children also age. Bunkle is ten when the first book starts and ages gradually until the last but one volume, before returning to his original age in the last adventure which is hard to find owing to a short
Swallows and Amazons series goes on; the final book occurs three to four years after the first (see timeline below). There is an inconsistency in the only two dates mentioned in the series. In the first book the year is stated to be 1929; while in the second book, "Swallowdale", which is supposed to take place one year later, the year is given as 1931. A second inconsistency is that while Bridget is only a year old in the first novel, she has aged five years by the time of "Secret Water". While the emphasis of all the books is on the activities of