Posted by Robin Selby on September 12, 2025 at 06:13:07 user RobinSelby.
In Reply to: Re: What is posted by Adam Quinan on September 12, 2025 at 05:13:30:
My study of food and drink in the Swallows and Amazons books shows that meals with corned beef aka pemmican were as follows:
Book Meals with corned beef
Swallows and Amazons 4
Swallowdale 8
Peter Duck 3
Winter Holiday 1
Coot Club 0
Pigeon Post 5
We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea 0
Secret Water 1
Big Six 1
Missee Lee 2
Picts and Martyrs 0
Great Northern? 1
Total 26
The table shows that the explorers eat corned beef on twelve occasions in the first two books, which is why the reader gets the impression that they eat a lot of corned beef. Swallowdale stands out, in that the explorers eat corned beef on 8 occasions, accounting for a high percentage of the meals. Ransome may have been aware that corned beef featured prominently on the menu, because Susan tells Nancy that ‘we’re not sick of pemmican if you aren’t’. Finally, it will be noted that the consumption of corned beef mainly relates to the Swallows books set in the Lake District in the summer.
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