Peel Island, Cumbria with of woodland, in 1932. Peel Island is considered to be one of the origins of the fictional Wild Cat Island in the 1930 book "Swallows and Amazons" and its sequels, by Arthur Ransome. Taqui Altounyan, sister of Roger Altounyan and inspiration for one of the characters in "Swallows and Amazons", described Peel Island in her semi-biographical novel "In Aleppo Once" as "like a green tuffet, sitting in the water, the trees covering the rocks". The island also features in W. G. Collingwood's novel "Thorstein of the Mere, A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland". Ransome, at the age of
Swallows and Amazons series season, which is in term time. Also while the use of firearms is reasonable in the context of the plot it seems to be at odds with the more peaceful adventures of most of the rest of the series). The following diagram shows the implied timeline of the books in the series. S, A, and D represent the main protagonists, the Swallows, Amazons, and Dick/Dorothea, respectively. Current editions of the Swallows and Amazons series have illustrations which were drawn by Ransome himself. The first edition of "Swallows and Amazons" was published almost without illustrations. Ransome so disliked the pictures by