Old Man of Coniston stretch from north of the summit toward the Coppermines. The Old Man of Coniston is the inspiration for the so-called "Kanchenjunga", the Lake District mountain Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons climb in the Swallows and Amazons novel "Swallowdale". The slate quarries and copper mines inspired "Pigeon Post", a later novel in the same series. Old Man of Coniston The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells in the English Lake District. It is high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston and the lake, Coniston Water. The fell is sometimes known by the
Arthur Ransome foreign affairs, and also writing the "Country Diary" column on fishing. On the Ransomes return to England, "Racundra" was sold to the yachting author Kaines Adlard Coles who sailed her back to England. By the late 1920s, Ransome had settled in the Lake District because he had decided not to accept a position as a full-time foreign correspondent with the "Guardian". Instead he wrote "Swallows and Amazons" in 1929—the first of the series that made his reputation as one of the best English writers of children's books. Ransome apparently based the Walker children (the "Swallows") in the book in part