Coniston Water G. Collingwood wrote a historical novel "Thorstein of the Mere" about the Northmen who settled on the island in the lake. The Victorian and Edwardian artist Henry Robinson Hall settled in Coniston during the Great War and is buried in the parish church graveyard. Arthur Ransome set his children's novel "Swallows and Amazons" and the sequels "Swallowdale", "Winter Holiday", "Pigeon Post" and "The Picts and the Martyrs" around a fictional lake derived from a combination of Coniston Water and Windermere. The fictional lake resembles Windermere, but the surrounding hills and fells resemble those of Coniston Water. Some of Coniston Water's
Swallows and Amazons Forever! (father of Tom) and Frank Farland (father of the twins) plus in "Coot Club" five obnoxious adults in a motor cruiser, the "Margoletta" who are called the Hullabaloos by the children. Despite the title, Ramsome's other groups of children the Swallows and the Amazons do not appear. A Puffin paperback with the same title was published in 1983; it is a condensation of Coot Club (omitting the postscript) and The Big Six.(omittiing 7 chapters). It was reissued as a Red Fox paperback in 1993 with the title "Swallows and Amazons for Ever!" Swallows and Amazons Forever! Swallows and Amazons Forever!