Winter Holiday (novel) Winter Holiday (novel) Winter Holiday is the fourth novel of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" series of children's books. It was published in 1933. In this story, the third set of major characters in the series, the Ds — Dick and Dorothea Callum—are introduced. The series' usual emphasis on boats and sailing is largely absent, as the story is set in the winter. Instead, the children's activities focus on ice skating, signalling with semaphore and Morse code, and sledging. Ransome draws on his schoolday memories of the Great Frost of 1895 when Windermere froze completely. Another major influence is Fridtjof
Last of the Amazons Last of the Amazons Last of the Amazons is a novel by Steven Pressfield that recounts the legend of Theseus and the Amazons, set before the threshold of recorded history, a generation before the Trojan War. The novel's theme is the conflict between the nascent Greek civilization and the savage but free Amazons of the Eastern steppes, between men and women, and between love and hate. The novel covers Theseus's travels to the lands of the Amazons, his elopement with their war queen Antiope, and the war pursued by the Amazons to recover their queen and honor, which leads them