Coot Club (Swallows and Amazons)

Someone is wrecking wild birds’ nesting places on the lake and selling eggs to out-of-town collectors. It’s the Coot Club Bird Protection Society to the rescue!

Dick and Dorothea Callum came to the Norfolk Broads during the Easter holidays, eager to learn to sail. There, they run into the Coot Club―children who protect the local birds from thoughtless tourists.

Trouble begins when a coot’s nest is disturbed by a ship full of “Hullabaloos”―rude holiday boaters. The children try to convince the “Hullabaloos” to moor their noisy boat somewhere else. This fails and frantic chases, calamitous boat collisions, daring rescues (including by a dog, William the pug), and rewards ensue!

Friendship and resourcefulness, dangers and excitement: Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series has stood the test of time. More than just great stories, each one celebrates independence and initiative with a colorful, large cast of characters. Coot Club (originally published in 1934) was ahead of its time in its concern for protecting wildlife. It is the fifth title in the Swallows and Amazons series, books for children or grownups, anyone captivated by a world of adventure, exploration, and imagination.

Arthur Ransome spent his childhood in England’s Lake District, and after a career in journalism that took him to Russia (where he married Trostsky’s secretary), China, and Egypt (interspersed with summers of cruising through the Baltic Sea and the canals of Europe), he retired to Coniston where he could practice his favorite pastimes of sailing and fishing and where he wrote the Swallows and Amazons series.