Re: Swallows and Amazons: Teachers Resources


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Posted by Mike Field on April 15, 2006 at 01:58:04 from 203.129.41.252 user mikefield.

In Reply to: Re: Swallows and Amazons: Teachers Resources posted by lyn on March 31, 2006 at 18:00:07:

Sorry for the tardy reply, Lyn.

I regularly read the entire series of books sequentially every couple of years, and the map-drawing process started when I became rather tired of referring back to the small maps at the start of each Lake book each time I read it -- particularly because most of my books are paperback versions and the maps are necessarily small and smudgy, but also because the maps (a) shows different features in each one in accordance with any particular book's contents, and (b) are at different orientations on the page (so that, for instance, sometimes Rio is at the bottom of the map and sometimes at the top.)

The answer was to produce one map that covered all the activities of all the protagonists in all the Lakes books, also a map at a considerably larger scale than even the hardcover books' versions, and finally a map that could be opened out on a table next to where you were reading, to be referred to without turning back to the end-papers each time you wanted to check something.

Having completed the Lake map more-or-less to my satisfaction, the map of Wild Cat Island was then drawn to "complete the set" so to speak, and finally the map of Secret Water was done really because by then I'd got the bug....

You'll know that AR's "Secret Water" country (the Walton Backwaters) is geographically correct (with the exception of the existence of Sinbad's Creek,) so I was able to produce that map from current UK maps. But note that a lot of the dykes in the area were badly breached and land flooded by storms after Secret Water was written, and much of the damage has never been repaired. So if you look at modern-day maps you'll see much more jagged coastal outlines and much more inland water than appear in either the book's or my map.


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