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 series in the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. They describe the story of "Peter Duck" being made up by the Walkers and Blacketts on a wherry in the Norfolk Broads during the winter following the events described in "Swallows and Amazons". This composition was later referenced in "Swallowdale", but not in "Peter Duck" itself. The final complete book, "Great Northern?" is set in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. This book is sometimes included with "Peter Duck" and "Missee Lee" as metafictional because the story would involve the children being away from school during the nesting