Swallows and Amazons characters in Arthur Ransome books According to Ransome, every place in his book can be found in the Lake District, but he took different locations and placed them in different ways: the lake is a fictionalised version of Windermere but the surrounding countryside more closely resembles that around Coniston. Wild Cat Island, the location of the island camp, has elements from Peel Island in Coniston and Blake Holme (or Blakeholme) in Windermere. Holly Howe, the farmhouse where the Swallows stay, is based on Bank Ground Farm, which exists to this day. It was featured in the 1974 film. Reviewing the
Amazons (modern Don river), formerly called the Amazonian or Amazon () river, because the Amazons bathed themselves therein. The Amazons later moved to Themiscyra (speculated to be modern Terme, though no ruins exist) on the River Thermodon (the Terme river in northern Turkey). Plutarch mentions that the campaign(s) of Heracles and Theseus against the Amazons was at Euxine Sea (modern Black Sea). Homer tells that the Amazons were sought and found somewhere near Lycia. The Amazons were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna, Ephesus, Cyme, Myrina, Sinope, Paphos, Mitylene. At Patmos there was a place called Amazonium. Also,