Posted by Mike Field on July 20, 2012 at 16:10:10 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Chronological reading posted by richardcb on July 17, 2012 at 18:34:12:
Bill Wright has very kindly given us a timeline of all books in the canon, computed from no-doubt numerous readings of the novels. It's on the All Things Ransome site, at the link.
As far as 'reading order' goes, I'd strongly suggest reading all the Lake stories in order, reading Coot Club before The Big Six, and reading We Didn't Mean before Secret Water. There'll still be some overlaps, but they'll be less important.
Personally, I hardly ever bother with either Peter Duck or Missee Lee. (There's an account somewhere of how Peter Duck was supposed to have been written, which was as a joint effort by the childrem holidaying with Captain Flint on a moored wherry one winter.)