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
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