signals from tarsus north pole newssignals from tarsus - north pole news — october 2017 2 down...

Signals from TARSUS &North Pole NewsOctober 2017

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Tent for Two, p. 12

Contents

Ship's Papers:A View from the Helm — Robin Marshall, TARSUS Coordinator

Greetings from the North — Ian Sacré, TARS Canada Coordinator

A Note from the Editor — Simon Horn

Kanchenjunga’s Cairn:Cruise of the Lydia — Ian Sacré

Ship's Library:The 2016 Swallows and Amazons Movie — Simon Horn

The New Movie — Donald Tunnicliff Rice

The Twilight Years - Hill Top— Simon Horn

Kanchenjunga’s Cairn:Tent for Two: A Year of Adventure — Elizabeth Jolley

Pieces of Eight:A Book Maze — Simon Horn

The Sea Bear's Galley:Fried Cannonballs — Molly McGinnis

pg. 2-4

pg. 8

pg. 5

pg. 15

pg. 16

pg. 12The New Movie, p. 8

pg. 11

pg. 14

Cruise of the Lydia,p. 5

Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — October 2017

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Down here in Florida our adventurewas more of the unpleasant kind,since summer here is also hurricaneseason. So, with the usual dire warn-ings from the media, we found our-selves facing possible disaster from ahurricane called Irma.

Weusuallywatch but don’tworry.Wetend to be warned warned well in ad-

vance, and often the storm veers offsomewhere else. This time the closerit got, themore anxiouswe became. Itreally looked like our luckhad runout,this and the horrifying pictures of thedevastation on the Caribbean islands.Many years ago we had made stormshutters. Living in a flood zone closeto the Manatee River, we knew wewould be evacuated, and sure enough

the mandatory evacua-tion notice was given. Attimes like that it is hardnot to start runninground in panic like achicken with its head cutoff. We managed toovercome that urge andwere able to leave thehouse all buttoned upwith its shutters andhead off to our daughter,who lives on higherground.

Fortunately by the timeIrma got to us it had losta lot of strength and thenext day we were able toreturn home, pleased tofind that at least ourhouse was as good aswhen we left and it stillhad water and power.

Thereweremany trees down, though,and even now the sides of the roadsare still littered with piles of limbs asthe local authorities struggle to clearthem.

November is usually the end to thehurricane season so now we can resteasy again.

***

I think several members have nowseen the new Swallows and Amazonsmovie, with most not happy with itsinterpretation of the book. I have yetto hear if it produced a new wave ofmemberships in the UK; somethingtells me it did not.

***

The next thing for TARSUS is mem-ber renewals. As the British poundhas fallen since the referendum I haveadjusted dues to a more realistic level,at the same time allowing for furtherfluctuation, I hope. If you pay me di-rectly, the new rates are:

Junior $16 – Student $30Adult $46 – Family $53Senior $38 – Corporate $90

You still have the option to pay usingPaypal at the Arthur Ransome site,where, depending on the daily ex-change rate, it may cost a bit less ormore: Be sure to have your member# and select the overseas category inthe pull-down menu.

lhttp://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk/TARS_Subscription_Renewals.html

Smooth sailing and fair winds.Robin

Ship’s Papers — Important information for the Crew

A View from the Helm

By Robin MarshallTARSUS Coordinator210 N 18th Street W Bradenton, FL [email protected]

Here we are in October again. Summer is leaving withmany memories both good and bad. I hope all mem-bers had some fun and maybe an adventure or two.

Hurricane Irma over the Virgin Islands

http://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk/TARS_Subscription_Renewals.html

http://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk/TARS_Subscription_Renewals.html

mailto:[email protected]


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ing pressing forme to do. Then out ofthe blue there arrived Simon’s email.This brought to mind the game weused to play in gym class which wascalled ‘Simon Says’ Do this, or Simonsays do that! But if we did what ever itwaswewere told to do and Simonhadnot said it, wewere counted out!Well,not wishing to be counted out, Simonsaid it is time toprepare something forthe North Pole News. So here are afew tit-bits that come to mind.

Once again, the headquarters reportsfromTedEvens regrettably show thattheTARSmembership has continuedto shrink. As of the endof August thepaid membership is down to 818made upof 1,115warmbodies. Itmaybe of interest to some of you to seehow this breaks downbyRegion and/or Country (see the table).

A statistic which would be both re-vealing and interesting would be theage grouping of the TARS members.For instance, howmany young mem-bers are there under say aged 16?Howmany between the years of 16 and 25and so on.

Once in a rare while I come across anadultwhohas read at least someof theAR series. The other week, on a rou-tine visit to my doctor, he asked byway of conversation what I had beenup to lately. I mentioned that I just

returned from two weeks holiday onthe Norfolk Broads. Where upon heasked if I had seen theMargoletta andany Hullabaloos? Quite surprised Isaid no, I'd not seen the Margolettabut Ihad seen lotsofHullabaloos, andadded, so you have read Arthur Ran-some'sCootClub? Towhichhe repliedthat he had read and owned thewholeseries and had often gone sailing onthe Broads with his father as a result.For a few unprofessional minutes werelived fond memories. I shall nowhave to work on him and see if I canrecruit a new member!

While on the subject of membershipsand our small numbers here in Cana-da, one of our handicaps it wouldseem is that we are sowide spread and

this does not lead to easy get togeth-ers. If it would help to provide moreinteraction between members Itwould be possible to send out a list ofTARS Canada members names, theiremail addresses, postal addresses andphone numbers to each of you. Iwould appreciate hearing from anyCanadianmemberswhowouldobjectto this so that I can remove theirnames from any such distribution listand thus protect their privacy.

Membership Renewal for 2018

Of course, once again the time hascome to send out a gentle reminderthat our TARS subscriptions expireon the 31st.December 2017, just overtwo months from now. Where theyear has gone since I found myselfwriting a similar reminder last year Isimply do not know. Someone oncesaid that as we get older time seems tofly by faster and in my case it certainlyappears to be the case.

As most Canadian TARS memberswill have observed, our Canadian dol-lar has taken a recent small upswingagainst other currencies. I have there-fore adjusted the Overseas Canadiandollar subscription rates for 2018which you will see aremarginally low-er than last year. Because the ex-change rate fluctuates minute byminute Ihave roundedeach figureup-ward to the nearest dollar. This willallow a little slack just in the case ourdollar goes down between now andyear end.

As usually mentioned, for those Ca-nadian TARS members wishing topay their renewal subscriptions di-rectly to the Arthur Ransome SocietyUK in funds drawn on a UK bank

Greetings from the North

By Ian Sacré, TARS Canada Coordinator750 Donegal Place, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2X5

[email protected]

While revelling in these last warm days of summer, be-fore the wet and snowy days of autumn and wintercome all too quickly upon us, I was quietly enjoying theday, happy with the thought that really there was noth-



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please send your payment to:Membership SecretaryMr. D.Y. Middleton9 Merrow Avenue, PooleBH12 1PY, UK

The renewal formwill be foundon theback of the address sheet that accom-panied your copyofSignals. Theover-seas TARS membership rates whenpaid in British Pounds Sterling are asfollows:

Junior: £10.00 Student: £20.00Senior: £25.00 Adult: £30.00Family: £35.00 Corporate: £60.00

Please let me know if you pay directlyto theUKso that I can tick you offmylist and advise Ted Evans so that he

can update the regional membershipdirectory.

For those whowish to continue to re-new theirTARSSubscriptions byper-sonal cheque drawn on a CanadianBank and made payable to me, therates in Canadian dollars are as fol-lows:

Junior: $17.00 Student: $33.00Senior: $41.00 Adult: $49.00,Family: $57.00 Corporate: $97.00

Please make your cheques payable tome, Ian Sacré, and send them to:

750 Donegal PlaceNorth VancouverBritish Columbia, V7N 2X5

* * *

I do hope that some of you will con-tinue to put on your creative thinkingcaps and send contributions to ourEditor. Simon is always looking formaterial and perhaps there is a best-selling author lurking amongst you!

Enjoy these autumn days and I hopethe comingwinter is kind to everyone.

Keep an equal strain on all parts! (Aswas said in the heyday of the clipperships.)

Warmest regards,Ian SacréTARS Canada Co-ordinator

glish-Welsh border. With 10 familymembersof avarietyof agespacked into an eight-berth craft, organizationby Ian’s daughter Pam was key. Ian’sgorgeous pictures of the Welsh bor-ders make me wish I had been there.

Recently, I finally got to see the 2016Swallows and Amazons movie. I pro-vide my take on it, examining how itcompares both to the book and to the1962BBCTVversion as seen byRan-some in his diary (thanks to MargaretRatcliffe’s The Twilight Years).

Donald Tunnicliff Rice also giveshis appreciation. He explains how forhim the newmovie didn’t capture the

spirit of the book, while the touringmusical version he saw several yearsago—with adult actors, no less—didget it right.

Elizabeth Jolley brings us up to dateon her daughter’s “Tent for Two” ex-pedition with ”partner-in-climb”Mike. The intrepid explorers havebeen climbing mountains over thewestern United States and backpack-ing along the Pacific Crest Trail. Nextstop: Ecuador and the Galapagos!

Molly McGinnis ensures that wewon’t go hungry as long as we can gethold of some pemmican, uhh, cornedbeef. She gives us two recipes for

“fried cannonballs”: her own forcorned beef and potato, and Susan’srecipe from the stories. As she says,“Fried Cannonballs sound so tasty,the perfect entrée for eating round acampfire.”

Pieces of Eight is short and sweetthis time— no one sent me anything!— so at the last minute I rustled up a“BookMaze”. Your contributions re-ally are necessary!

The next issue should appear in Jan-uary or February. The holiday seasondoes tend to disrupt things, so I amsetting a preliminary deadline for arti-cles of December 1. That should al-low me to get stuck into the issue be-fore I go away for a week at the begin-ning of January, and finish it beforethe end of themonthwhen I get back.You can probably already see the flawin this plan: you, the readers, have towork on your contributions beforeyou get swallowed up by your ownholiday activities. We will see whathappens. Start today!

A Note from the EditorBy Simon Horn, [email protected]

Welcome to Signals from TARSUS/North Pole News forSeptember... oops, October 2017.

Autumnhasbeenvery late coming this year, so thatwillhave to be my excuse for being a month late.

In this issue, Ian Sacré reports on a week-long trip bynarrowboat Lydia on the Llangollen Canal on the En-



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Kanchenjunga’s Cairn — Places we’ve been and our adventures

During the 2016 Christmas holidays Ifloated the idea to my two daughtersthat it might be fun for us all go on anarrow boat cruise on British Water-ways. The ‘all’ being my daughters Jilland Pam, their husbands and a collec-tive assortment of five grandchildrenranging in age from eleven to eigh-teen.Wewould thusmakeupamotleycrew of ten. I had previously been ona narrow boat voyage which I hadthoroughly enjoyed despite the fact,as I later found out, that the boat Ihired had sunk two weeks previouslyto my hiring due to a leaking sterngland! And so it was after making afew suggestions as to what sort ofcruisemightwork for us, I left the ideato ferment and hopefully mature intheir fertile younger minds.

Two or three weeks later, Pam calledme to say that she had talked the ideaover with her sister Jill and they likedthe proposal and asked what dateswould work for me. I replied that anydateswould be fine. Finally, with theirvery busy family lives, school, sports

and work commitments etc. it thustranspired that the secondweek in Ju-ly was selected as being best for them.

Pam is a frustrated tour planner atheart despite having been a publish-er's agent with a university honoursdegree in English Literature beforehaving three children. She asked if shecould do the homework and organizethe narrow boat booking, etc? Whatan offer! It was gladly accepted by allof us! There followed numerousphone calls, consultations and de-

bates. Then oneday an excitedPamcalled to sayit was done! Wewere all bookedfor a week on a70-foot narrowboat on theL l a n g o l l e nCanalwhichme-anders in andout of Englandand Wales! Theonly thing was,

because there were only eight properberths in the boat her husbandDesmondand Iwouldhave to sleep inthe galley! Was that alright? She as-sured me that there were two very‘nice’ settees in the galley area whichwould be just fine for Des and I! Ofcourse I said yes but I must confess Iwondered why, as the patriarch of thefamily, I was being assigned uncere-moniously to what amounted to theforecastle or steerage! And besides,what had Desmond done to deservethis banishment? However, the plancalled for us all to make our own wayto England and then to rendezvouson the appointed day in Chirk, whichwas the home port of our trusty ves-sel.

Finally the big day arrived and mycousins in Shropshire kindly droveme to theboat yard.Butmygoodness,no onewas there except the staff! DidI have the wrong date? No, the datewas correct. Were there any mes-sages? None that the manager wasaware of. There was nothing for it but

Cruise of the LydiaBy Ian Sacré


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to go for coffee and return a bit later.

Two hours on we drove back to theyard and found it a hive of activity.Luggage for nine was piled high.Cardboard boxes filled with provi-sions, and five grandchildren all talk-ing at once!When I saw the enormousstackof gear I couldnothelpbut com-ment that we needed a freighter not anarrow boat, to which my numberone daughter Jill replied, don’t worrywe have a solution. When everyonehas unpacked, all the empty suitcasesetc. are going back into the cars!

I quietly made the observation thatone of the essentials for getting alongwell in small spaces is for everyone tobe neat and tidy and tomake sure theykeep their gear together and out ofother people's way. But as the nextseven days were to reveal, no oneheard me as I frequently tripped overgear and bottled water left strewnabout all over the place!

Miraculously, half an hour later themountains of clothes were more orless stowed. My twenty inch wide‘nice’ settee bench in the galley turnedout to have a cavernous space underthe thin cushion into which I couldjust squeeze my soft pack. I would

thus be destined to liveout of my pack for thewhole week. Desmondon the starboard side wasnot so lucky because un-der his berth was housedthe boat's fresh waterpump! A noisy contrap-tion to say the least, par-ticularly when it was acti-vated at 2.00 in the morn-ing!

We were then given a halfhour briefing by the staff and sent offon our voyage of discovery. We had awhole week to cruise ahead of us sowe decided to sail eastwards for twoand a half days and to see were we gotto, then turn around and head west-wards to the end of the canal at Llan-gollen where we would again turn

around and spend the night beforewending our way back to Chirk, ourhome port. Locks, tunnels, aque-ducts, lift bridges, pubs and the un-known awaited us.

The family immediately got into theswing of things as the landscape flewby at the dizzying speed of two and ahalf knots! Stone and brick bridgeswere fun as anxiousmothers cried out

to their respective children to get theirheads down, as we slipped under theancient structureswithonly a foot anda half to spare. The bridge abutmentswere narrow too with only six inchesof clearance on each side. But as thestaff had said, “Your boat weighs 24tons and don’t worry if you knocksomething, it is built to take it!”

Frequently our crew members woulddisembark as we passed under abridge towalk or run awhile along theever present tow path only to rejointhe vessel a mile or more along theway. A major concern were the fami-lies of baby ducklings that alwaysseemed to be between our hull and adock wall as we glided by. Screams ofconcern would go up from the for-ward crew as the ducklings scootedout of theway and the helmsman anx-

iously glanced over the side for man-gled bodies. We saw none! Often, myother son in law Jason, an avid runner,would hop off and disappear for twohours as he ran ahead to ‘check out’the tow path, though I think the pubswere his hidden agenda!

The tunnels were exciting as well. Un-lit, and only wide enough for one ves-sel, the trick was to have our lookouts


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keep watch for a craft about to enterthe tunnel at the other end and tomake sure the tunnel was clear beforewe committed ourselves. We thenturnedon all our cabin lights to illumi-nate the walls of the tunnel thus help-ing us to stay in the middle.

Another thrillwas transiting thePont-cysylite Aqueduct, a narrow irontrough on eighteen stone piers form-ing nineteen arches, designed andbuilt by Thomas Telford between1795 and 1805. The iron waterwaycrossed the River Dee more than 125feet below us. Again, our essentiallookouts were on their toes since thetrough, over 1,000 feet long, was onlywide enough for one craft! The views

were unmatched here as theywere ev-ery day we cruised.The ship’s boy, Beckett, the youngestof our crew at eleven, became an ex-pert lift bridge cranker. He and his fa-ther would jump off the boat as weslowed to let them off so they couldrun ahead to crank up the bridges sothat we could take themon the fly andslowly pass through the abutmentswithout stopping. Grinning from earto ear, his face beet red with exertion,he was one happy lad as he clamberedback on board at the stern!Of great amusement to the crew wasthe night I fell out of my bunk! Well,twenty inches is not really very wideand I amsix feet three!Fortunately the

dropwas only twelve inches but it wasa rude awakening. From then on I putextra cushions on the sole in case ithappened again!

The final approaches to the town ofLlangollen were interesting. For near-ly a half mile the canal was only wideenough foronecraft so the five grand-children were sent running ahead andspaced out to signal an approachingvessel we were transiting the narrowsection and towait for us to exit. Theywere a super crewandas thedayswentby all learnt to steer our craft with it’slarge tiller!

After a night in Llangollen we reluc-tantly turned our bow for our homeport. The secret stashes of candy andchocolate bars all eaten. The fridge al-most empty and the provisions con-sumed. But our memories all filled tothe brim with the experiences ofopening lift bridges, cranking thesluice gates of the locks and leaningour weight on the beams of the lockgates to swing them wide open to letus pass and all thewhile soaking in themagnificent scenery. A glorious ad-venture shared by the whole family.Thank you Lydia!

North Vancouver, October 2017


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I should start by explaining that I didnot have very high hopes for the newSwallows andAmazons film. I suppose Iwas expecting the standard Holly-wood treatment, and I am afraid thatis what we got.

We all wanted it to be good, since Ithink we hoped it might lead to a newgeneration of young readers discover-ing Ransome’s books. It wasn’t good,and I don’t know if there has been anincrease in sales of the books since themovie appeared.

Perhaps some people who enjoyedthe movie have gone on to pick upSwallows and Amazons, and I hope thatit appeals to them. I fear, however,that some will be confused, disap-pointed or simply nonplussed, sincethemovie really is false advertising forthe book.

The new film is not an adaption ofRansome’s classic, it is a bizarre mix-ture of S&Aand spy thriller. It doesn’tdo a good job of either.

The assumption by the producers ofthe new film, as it was for the 1962BBC television version, is that con-temporary audiences would find Ran-some’s, quite frankly gentle, plot bor-ing.

When I read the12booksbetween theages of 9 and 12, theywere quite excit-ing enough, essentially because I

could believe theywere real: that theycould have hap-pened to me! It wasnot for nothing thatI, like countless oth-ers, sent Ransomethe classic question:“Did the stories real-ly happen?”

I received a classicRansome answer onSwallows and Ama-zons notepaper,where he pointed out that “two ofthose books”, i.e., Peter Duck andMis-see Lee, “are of a different kind of reali-ty”. What was important was if theyseemed real while I read them.Whichis absolutely true of fiction generally.

Of course, sophisticated 12-year-oldthat I felt myself to be, I knew theS&As hadn’t tackled Chinese piratesand Black Jake wasn’t hanging aboutLowestoft piers. What made thebooks seem real, though, was Ran-some’s attention todetail and the con-sistent characters of the children.

The other 10 stories, though… theymight have been real! And I foundthem all exciting.

Swallows and Amazons or thriller?

In the 1960s the TV contract with theBBC said that any change in the storyor characters had to be approved byRansome.

Ransome objected to taking theepisode of the thieves stealing Cap-tain Flint’s trunk and turning it into

the centre of the plot. In his diaries hesaid:

“Their story is a conventional‘cops and robbers' story, facetiousand extremely silly.” (TwilightYears, p. 246)

Essentially, the BBC people main-tained that Ransome’s book was notsufficiently “dramatic”, and thattherefore something had to be addedto make the story work for the audi-ence.

Eventually Ransome felt worn downby the whole controversy and re-marked:

“They may be right and a decentfilm cannot be made of my bookunless the book is altered whole-sale to match the silly film.”

and“I think the fundamental troublemay be in the impossible attemptto make out of my quiet story astring of independent ‘exciting’events.” (Twilight Years, p. 252)

And, after it appeared:

The 2016 Swallows and Amazons Movie: A Lost OpportunityBy Simon Horn

“Who are these bad-tempered people?”A comment about the movie on the

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons inNorth America Facebook page.

Ship’s Library — Books (and movies) we’ve read and want to share


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“I loathe the T.V.mess they showas my story. It is not, nor are thecharacters even approximatelylikemine. I am sorry I ever agreedto let them do it.” (Twilight Years,p. 255)

I have not seen the 1960s production,and some people who have say it wasnot that bad, despite what the Ran-somes thought.

I have seen the 2016 movie, though,and as Margaret Radcliffe says in thelatest Mixed Moss, Ransome “wouldhave loathed it”. The addition of thespy plot (like the thieves in the 1962version), alters the story completely,permitting the filmmakers to addchase scenes and threats (and a sea-plane, forheaven’s sake*), supposedlyin order to make it gripping enoughfor today’a audiences.

A Daily Mail published an article byBarbara Altounyan (Roger’s daugh-ter) August 16, 2016, just before themovie’s release. A quote from thefilm’s writer, Andrea Gibb, gives thegame away: “We've made Ransome'sreal story our subplot… There's theimaginative danger the kids are livinginwith the Swallows against theAma-zons, and the real danger that existsaround them.”

By making the spy story the primaryplot, the film does not leave room forRansome’s own story to be fully de-veloped. Things have to be left outbecause the movie keeps jumpingfrom one story to the other.

In theoriginal, thepurposeof the rob-

bery is to provide a mechanism forreconciliation between Captain Flint,his nieces and the Swallows, to havehim realize that he has been unhelp-ful, unfriendly and quite unfair, espe-cially to John. The idea is not to pro-vide chase scenes and visual thrills.

It is quite thrilling enough for aneight-year-old girl to be alone in aboat, anchored in the middle of a lakein the dark, overhearing adults clearlyup to no good.

Who are these people? or,does conflict = nastiness?

The next area where the new film fallsdown is in its characterizations. Withthe partial exception of the twoyoungest children, none of the char-acters are true to the book. This is apity, since the children’s acting is pret-ty good, especially the two youngerones.

The changeof characterization showsitself particularly in the way the filmdeals with conflict.

All right, “Screenplay 101” tells usthat drama requires conflict. Fairenough. But why does the newmovieseemto think conflict requires generalunpleasantness and nastiness.

In the movie Roger loses his father’sknife, which has been given to John,while watching one of the spies riflingthrough Captain Flint’s rowing boatat Rio pier. When John finds out he isfurious, which is fair enough. But hethen browbeats Roger, calling him aduffer, possibly the worst insult hecould have thought of, since everyoneknows that father is counting on themnot to be duffers. The sheer cruelty ofit is typical of the film.

Everywhere themovie adds contrivedconflict between characters, presum-ably because they are afraid we will goout tobuymorepopcorn if theydon’t.

In the book the Swallows do not losethe food basket overboard becauseJohn jibes on the trip to the island. Ifthey had lost the basket overboard,however, I somehow doubt that Ran-some would have written John andSusan sniping at each other for therest of the voyage.

In the movie, after John jibes and thebasket is pushed overboard:

Susan: “Look what you made medo!John: “It wasn’t my fault!”

In the book John does not jibe thanksto Susan’s warning:

Susan: “Look out what you’re do-ing, John!”Captain John, with his mind onthe houseboat, had not beenthinking about his steering…Theboom was just going to swingover when Susan called, but John,putting down the helm instantly,just saved a jibe. After that helooked at the houseboat only outof the corner or his eye. The windwas so light that a jibe would nothave mattered much, except per-haps to bumped heads, but it

*This reminds me of the 2008 version ofThe 39 Steps, where the original finalconfrontationwith theGerman spieswasapparently not considered excitingenough, hence the arrival of a Germansubmarine in a Scottish loch!


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would hardly have done for thecaptain of the ship to have set anexample of such bad steering tohis crew.

What about the characterization ofthe Blackett girls? The movie tries tocapture the relationship between theolder Nancy and the younger Peggy,withNancy telling her to shut up a lot.In the book Nancy’s frustration atPeggy’s chattering comes out often,but the film’sNancy is a lot angrier. Infact the whole parley on Wild Cat Is-land is a lotmore tense and angry thanit is in Ransome. This is set up by theAmazons’ “No Trespassing, Dangerof Death” sign and all the creepyskulls.

In the book the tone changes as soonas the children discover that CaptainFlint is a common enemy, and in anycase the Amazons really want to befriends. As Peggy says, “Let’s be al-lies… Really we wanted to be allies assoon as we saw your smoke on theisland yesterday. We are sick of na-tives.” So they agree to “a treaty ofoffence anddefence” inTitty’swords.“Yes,” said Nancy Blackett, “defenceagainst our enemies and all sorts ofdesperate battles between ourselveswhenever we want.”

In the book they agree that the “war”will decide who gets to be com-modore and whose ship will be flag-ship. In other words, it is clear thatthey intend to be friends in future.The basis of the alliance is their com-mon opposition to Captain Flint. Theparley ends with a meal togetherwhere they share their supplies, andthen Nancy shows John how to getsafely into the secret harbour.

In the new movie, however, the warwill decide who “wins the island” and

who will get both boats; in otherwords, enemies forever. The differenttreatment of the war in turn changesthe whole nature of the make-believethe children are involved in:• in the book it is a game and theyknow it. This does not mean it isunimportant, but it does mean theycandistinguishbetweenmake-believeand reality (for want of a less judge-mental term);• in the film the make-believe is morehostile and defensive. ClearlyNancy’sanger seems to take precedence overany possible friendship.

Nowperhapsone could argue that theWalkers and even the Amazons aremuch nicer in the book than mostchildren might be today, or evenwould have been then, but the pointis, in the story theWalkers relyoneachother and they know it. They do notspend their time arguing out of someemotional need to come out on top.Similarly, theAmazons are totally pre-pared to be friends once they discovertheir island has not been taken away.

Now, what about Captain Flint, evenleaving aside the entire spy plot? He issimply another “bad-tempered” per-son, who apparently gets along withno one. This provides continuous ex-cuses for more contrived “dramatic”conflict: with the Walkers, with theBlacketts, with his sister Molly, withthe harbourmaster, evenwith the ladyin the shop in Rio.

Captain Flint’s bad-tempered natureeven affects “the best of all natives”,mother.

In the book, mother asks John if theSwallows have been meddling withCaptain Flint’s houseboat:

“No,” said John, gloomily. “But

he thinks we have.”“I know,” said mother, “MrsDickson toldme. I said I was sureyou hadn’t.”

Mother knows her son, and believeshim.

“He called me a liar.”“Hewouldn’t have called you thatif he knew you,” said mother. “Itdoesn’t matter what people thinkor say if they don’t know you.They may think anything.”

In the new film, they simplify thingsby not having the Amazon’s set off afirework on Captain Flint’s house-boat roof. Instead, John accidentallybreaks a window in the houseboat,thus giving everyone, includingmoth-er, a reason to suspect the Swallows ofthe theft at the end of the story. Andthe mother seems quite ready to be-lieve it.Even the secondary characters arebad tempered, with Mrs Jackson be-ing negative aboutmore or less every-thing, including themore laid backMr

Themissing actor in thiswhole discus-sion is the 1974 film, which, thoughmade 45 years after the book first ap-peared, somehowmanaged to remaintrue to the spirit of the original.


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Jackson, in almost every scene inwhich she appears.

When the movie Swallows meet thecharcoal burners, movie’s general un-pleasantness reappears. Although themen will turn out to be friendly, thefirst couple of minutes as John andTitty (sorry, Tatty) enter the camp arepretty fraught, with all the dead ani-mals, and the sheep’s skull, and theadder on Tatty’s feet, followed bywhat seems tobe a fairly hostile recep-tion.

In the book, however, Roger is a bitfrightened when Old Billy appearsand he takes his sister’s hand. But thecharcoal burner’s first words are reas-suring:

“ ‘Hullo you!’ said the little oldman. ‘come to have a look, haveyou. Glad to see you.’ ”…“He seemed a very friendly sav-

age. Roger let go of Titty’s hand.”

And the adder sleeps safely in a boxunder Young Billy’s bed!

Have times changed?

Time after time the movie takes anincident in the book and hypes it intosomething more scary or conflictual.

We are told that it is impossible towrite stories or make movies thatcould have been made 30 or 50 or 70years ago. Supposedly the world haschanged, and it canno longer bedone.Today’s audience wants somethingmore interesting. (You are free to ig-nore the success of the 1974 movie!)

I think inmanyways it is that true thatsociety has become less like the ideal-ized version of fair play and comrade-ship that Ransome’s books portray.Perhaps it is simply that those idealsseem naive and no longer attainable.

That does not mean we have to like it.And it does not mean that we have toencourage the meanness that todayseems all too prevalent. If the TheArthur Ransome Society is going tomean anything, it should not be sim-ply a means of encouraging the out-door skills and activities that are beinglost. Above all it should continue toencourage the values of self-reliance,comradeship, mutual aid and empa-thy that Ransome’s work champi-oned. The new movie, alas, does notdo that; all too often it undercutsthose values.

Several reviews have said things alongthe lines of, well, hopefully at least itwill encourage children who havenever heard of him to read ArthurRansome. I hope so too, but I fearthey may find it all a bit confusing.Perhaps not.

It must have been twenty or so yearsago that I discovered the 1974 Swal-lows andAmazonsVHS* in the Colum-bus, Ohio, public library. Some boy— and I’m sure it was a boy — hadscrawled on the cover, “This is themost boring movie I have ever seen.”Iwas immediately reassuredandknewthat I was going to enjoy it, not be-cause it was boring, but because itmust not have beenDisneyfied to ap-peal to an audience unfamiliar withthe books. And I was right. Loved it.

Then — I guess it was five years ago— I happened to be in the vicinity ofCanterbury, England, when the tour-ing musical version of Swallows andAmazons was playing at the MarloweTheatre. It was with some apprehen-sion that I awaited its start. I admit it

took a few minutes to adapt my brainto the non-traditional casting (age,size, and ethnicity were out the win-dow) and the clever, imaginative setwith musicians and crew members aspart of the show. Then I was totallyentranced, even believing that twoblue ribbons were a body of water.This show deserved every enthusias-tic review it received.

This brings us up to this year and the2016 Swallows and Amazons movie.Didn’t like it. Not because it didn’tstick to the original story, but becauseit was a stupid story. I wouldn’t haveliked this movie if I’d never read thebook. When I saw the stage musical Iabsolutely believed in Roger eventhough the actor who played him wasold enough to have a beard—and did

have a beard. The play was a fantasy,and Roger’s characterization worked.However, I could not accept the ad-vanced ages of the children in themovie. The older ones would have tobe emotionally stunted and possiblydangerous to act so childishly. And Ireally, reallymissedCaptainFlint. Theonly part of themovie I truly likedwasseeing the names of acquaintances inthe credits.

*For those of you who are too young toknow, VHS stands for Video Home Sys-tem inwhich tape cassettes about the sizeof a paperback were inserted into a tapeplayer (and recorder) attached to yourtelevision. At the time it provided a wel-come opportunity to see movies youmight otherwise have missed.

The New MovieBy Donald Tunnicliff Rice


12

TARS family member Helen Jolley ofPortland, Oregon, and her “partner-in-climb” Mike Dorfman of Boston,MA are taking the year off fromworkand normal daily life, a choice ofwhich I am sureRansomewould haveapproved whole-heartedly!

Under the name “Tent for Two”, He-len and Mike have already climbedfour snowcaps in the Cascade Moun-tain Range of Oregon and Washing-ton. First they climbed our famousvolcano, Mt. St. Helens (8366feet/2550 meters), which Helen hasdesignated as “her” mountain, ’causeclearly she's named after it! Next theymoved upwards to Mt. Adams,(12,280 feet/3743 meters). Movingfurther north, Mt. Baker (10,781feet/3286 meters) was third on theirlist. The crowning glory was Mt.

Rainier, a full 14,411 feet/4392 meters of elevation!Theywere both happy and abit surprised that each climbwentwell, and theywere notturned back because ofweather, timing or danger-ous conditions.

That was just the start oftheir year. After all four ofthose climbs, they headed tothe Wind River Range inWyoming. The high routeacross/through this range ispretty challenging: elevationstays mostly above 10,000feet/3048 meters, and is of-ten above 13,000 feet/3962meters!Although theyhadplanned an8-10 day backpacking trip, they onlystayed about 5 days, finding it was

dangerous due to larger-than-usualamount of snow in the highest passes,as well as thunderstorms rolling in.But not toworry, they still have plentyof adventures left in their year!

As I type this, Helen and Mike areabout a week away from completing a500-mile/804-km+ backpacking tripon the highest portion of the PacificCrest Trail, the Sierra Range in Cali-fornia. We recently enjoyed catchingup with them for some R and R andlots of good cookedmeals— the sortthey can'tmanage on their lightweightone-burner stove — at TuolumneMeadows, just east and uphill fromYosemite National Park.

When they finish the trail section,Mike and Helen are headed into SanFrancisco to clean up and feed up at

Tent for Two: A Year of AdventureBy Elizabeth Jolley

Kanchenjunga’s Cairn — Places we’ve been and our adventures

Helen & Mike on top of Mt. Adamswith Helen's tall brother, Will.

On Mt. Rainier, Helen offers Mike anOreo to stave off being hungry.


13

an aunt's house, then to Mas-sachusetts and New Hampshire forMike’s sister’swedding andhismom'sbirthday. I am sure his parents will behappy to find that he has survived allthe adventures so far! Fair disclosure:Helen and Mike are carrying a devicedesigned to keep all the various par-ents happy: InReach by Garmin. Us-ing thewebsite and a password, any ofus can check on our determined ad-venturers to see where they are on amap,with pings sent via satellite everyhour. Whew! Nice choice on theirpart :-)

After spending the remainder of Oc-tober and all of November living atHelen's family home (because theyhave been living far away in Mas-sachusetts and Maine for four years,and her family needs some Helen-time), the daring duo will fly away toEcuador for some climbing and aGalapagos Islands visit. In Januarythey will head toNewZealand, whereMike had a term abroad in college. Hewants to share his memories withHe-len, and she wants to check out theLord of the Rings sites. No surprisethat they want to do some climbingand/or backpacking there!After that?Plans are on hold until later, but mayincludemuch-deserved down timeona nice island somewhere quiet, time inIndia and Nepal, possibly a stopsomewhere in eastern Europe, anddefinitely some western European

visits. Helen, with aMaster of Educa-tion in PE, wants to visit some of thefamed northern European countriesto learn more about their schools;maybe Denmark or Finland.

Finally, we have cooked up plans forparents to meet up with them in Eng-

land, and you can be sure that a visit tothe Lakes District will happen! Wehave fondmemories of our two fami-ly trips there in 2000 and 2004. He-len’s eyes lit up as she exclaimed, “Wecan have Swallows & Amazons timetogether again!”

The Arthur Ransome Society (TARS) website: http://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk

All Things Ransome, a website devoted to keeping articles, artwork, and anything related to Ransome:http://www.allthingsransome.net

The Arthur Ransome Wiki, an encyclopedia on Ransome, his life and works:http://arthur-ransome.wikia.com/wiki/Arthur_Ransome_Wiki

Useful Links

If you are interested in following along as they travel around the world,check out their blog here:https://tentfortwoblog.wordpress.com/

and their Facebook page here:https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Tent+for+Two/keywords_top

At Tuolumne Meadows with Helen's parents.

http://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk

http://www.allthingsransome.net

http://www.arthur-ransome.wikia.com/Arthur_Ransome_Wiki

https://tentfortwoblog.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Tent+for+Two/keywords_top


14

The Twilight Years is a two-volume col-lection that will bring together ArthurRansome’s diaries for the last 10 yearsof the author’s life. Volume 1, HillTop, is the Amazon Publication for2017. It presents Ransome’s diaries ofhis life with Eugenia in the Lake Dis-trict from 1956 through 1965. It alsoprovides more extensive materialabout what editor Margaret Ratcliffecalls “The BBC Affair” in the latestMixed Moss.

During this period the Ransomes di-vided their timebetweenHill Top andtheir London flat. The secondvolumewill cover the London diary entries,and will be the Amazon Publicationsbook for 2018. If you are interested, Isuggest that you subscribe to the sec-ond volume, so that we can ensure itspublication (watch for the subscrip-tion form with Signals).

That does raise the question, howev-er: should you read Volume 1, if youcan get it, and should you subscribe toVolume 2?

It strikes methatTheTwilightYears, Hill Top,is a classic ex-ample of abook that ap-peals if you arealready inter-ested in ArthurRansome. It is

not a book that you should recom-mend to a friend whom you are tryingto interest in our favourite author.

How can I put it? The diary entries areinterestingly dull (dully interesting?).Ransomewasnot adiarist.Theentriestell us what he was doing: if he wentfishing and what fly he used, if Rattle-trap was acting up, if his publisherswere being unhelpful, if his healthwascausing particular problems. They donot generally tell uswhathewas think-ing. I have a feeling that Ransomewould be horrified if he knew his di-aries were being reprinted. What for?

Now, to be fair, I actually enjoyed

reading through the book, but I am anenthusiast (and a writer and editor, toboot), so I have an excuse. I am notcertain that most members of the So-ciety would be interested.

The book is divided into two parts,however. The second provides moreextensive diary material about “theBBCaffair”. Forme thatwas themostinteresting part, because it showswhyArthur and Eugenia were so upsetwith the BBC’s treatment of Swallowsand Amazons for the 1962 TV series.They disagreedwith the result, which,despite a contract that ostensibly gaveRansome the final say, turned hisbook into “a conventional ‘cops androbbers’ story, facetious and extreme-ly silly”.

So, if you want an insight into Ran-some’s final years, read The TwilightYears. It will give you an idea of whattheywere like. If you are likeme, how-ever, it will make you wish that Ran-some had been a diarist, along witheverything else he was.

The Twilight Years - Hill TopBy Simon Horn

Ship’s Library — Books we’ve read and want to share

Chilean training ship, thebarquentine Esmeralda,anchored in Halifax harbour,for Canada Day, July 1,2017.

This beautful ship has acontroversial past, since itwas used as a prison ship bythe Pinochet regime afterthe Chilean military coupthat overthrew the demo-cratically elected Allendegovernment in 1973.


15

Pieces of Eight — The Junior Pages

A Book MazeEach picture from one of Ransome's books links to a place in themaze where you must choose which way to go. Start at the topwith Swallows and Amazons. To find your next choice look for

Swallowdale. End at the middle with Great Northern?But watch out: two of the clues are wrong. Good luck!

(Solution on page 19.)


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“Fried Cannonballs” sound so tasty,the perfect entrée for eating round acampfire. Many of us have dreamedof making them and some of us havetried making them. Ransome gives usthe Swallows’ recipe:

First, John opens a tin of corned beef,and they take turns with the mincingmachine. (With three hungry crews,eightpeople altogether, theBestofAllNatives must have supplied a verylarge-sized tin!)

Mincing machines, or meat grindersin the USA, haven’t changed muchover the years.Here’s themachine Su-san blued an allowance on, or onemuch like it.

I found this one, made in England inthe 1920’s, on the Web. It’s aboutidentical to the meat grinder whosehandle Imanned at aboutRoger’s age,in Ohio in the 1940’s. I wonder whatSusan fastened her mincing machine

to... somehave legs insteadof a clamp,but the legs are meant to bolt onto asturdy surface.

About ingredients

I couldn’t make Fried Cannonballsworkwith any kindof tinned (canned)corned beef, so I abandoned authen-ticity andmademyFriedCannonballsfrom corned brisket and round Icooked myself. American supermar-kets sell this in plastic vacuum bags.An even better, British style, cut iscalled silverside, frommoreor less thesame area of the cow as the round inan American cut.I’ve seen silver-side in Canadaand it’s sold on-line.

About butter: su-permarket butteris loaded withwhey and washwater (“overrun”)and not good tofry with and so ismost of the exor-

bitantly priced “European Style” but-ter (plugra) I’ve tried. Amish butter isbecomingverypopular and it’s proba-bly very close to the butter theDixonsmade in the S&A books, with thewhey paddled out and the same deli-cious taste. Lookon the internet if youdon’t see the two-pound paper-wrapped rolls in your local groceries.It keeps very well (that’s why we pad-dle the excess liquid out) in the refrig-erator and forever in the freezer.

Potatoes and onions: Organic onionsare usually dryer. Use yellow or whitecooking onions, not the “sweet” kind.Red, russet, and “gold” potatoes willwork but the “gold” kinds seem tohold things together better. Mostkinds are tight-textured and probablymuch like the new or early potatoesthe S&A’s would have had, whichcould well have had yellow flesh likethe best modern potatoes.

Cooking the meat

It takes a few hours but only a fewminutes of your time to cook corned

The Sea Bear’s Galley — Eating with the Swallows and Amazons

Fried CannonballsBy Molly McGinnis

The corned beef, a couple of onions andsome stale bread saved by thrifty cookswere put through the machine, and thenmixed together in a pudding bowl with araw egg and the little that was left of themorning’s milk. The mixture was rolledinto balls, by Titty and Dorothea, whohappened to have the cleanest hands.Butter was melted in the frying pan, andthen a skilful circular motion, closeabove the flames, gave the cannonballs achance of being browned on all sides.

Pigeon Post


17

beef. I baked a brisket from the pack-age directions once and I’ll never boilcornedbeef again! If youdo“boil” themeat, use the simmer burner afterbringing it to a boil and hold the heatso low the broth barely “shimmers,”with maybe an occasional bubble, sothemeatwon’t go to strings before it’stender.

Fried Cannonballs are a second mealfrom the corned beef (two packages ifthere are many at table) and here’show it works.

First meal: corned beef, potatoes andcabbage cooked in the juice, or coleslaw.

Second meal: fried cannonballs madewith leftover corned beef, potatoes,and raw onion.

1. Baking the meat:

Allow three to four hours for cooking(the package lies). I trim asmuch fat asI can from the meat because it’s toodelicious to resist; you may wish toskip trimming. Put the cornedbeef in-to an oven dish with lots of room forwaterwithwhat’s left of the fat on top.Cover the meat with water, dump thespice package plus a clove or two andsomepeppercornsover it, andcover it– fold foil over thedish tomakea tightlid if necessary.

Stick a fork in the meat after a coupleof hours – it probably won’t be tenderat all – turn it over and addmorewaterif it’s not to the top of the meat. If themeat tests tender a long time beforedinner hold it at about 140°F (60°C) ifyour oven has a ‘keep warm’ cycle, orleave it in the turned-off oven and anhour before serving turn the oven to250°F (120°C) to heat. This makeslovely firm corned beef which slicesrather than breaking into strings.

2. The rest of the dinner:

You’ll boil potatoes and cabbage inthe broth. If you baked in a stove-toppan, put the meat on a plate with alittle juice, cover and keepwarmwhileyou cook the vegetables in the bakingpan. Or, pour off some broth into asaucepan and keep the meat warm inits baking dish. In either case bring thebroth to a boil on top of the stove(taste for salt and add water if neces-sary) andcookpeeledpotatoes (lotsofpotatoes! You’ll use some later) andwhen they’re a little short of tender (Iuse an icepick to test) add skinnywedges of cabbage to cook lightly.Meanwhile, slice some of the meatrather thickly and add sliced and un-slicedmeatback to thepanbefore tak-ing it all to the table. Hey! I paid a lotfor my fancy pans and they always goto the table. Besides, isn’t that whatthe S&As would do?

Whendinner is over, fish out themeatand potatoes and put them in the re-frigerator.

In a day or two you can use the poundor so of leftover meat and comecooked potatoes to make Fried Can-nonballs.

At last! The Cannonballs.

Recipe One:Cannonballs with Potatoes

It takes less time tomake the cannon-ball mix than to read the directions!

Youwill need a big bowlwith room tomix it all up in. Exact proportions areless important but the mix must holdtogether enough to shape intospheres. Characteristics of ingredi-ents vary. Some potatoes are larger ormore dry, some onions are smaller orjuicier, and so on. (If you ate all thepotatoes, peel a fewmore, slice thickly

and microwave them between twoplates with a few drops of water whileyou prepare the meat and onion, al-lowing about one minute per potato.)

It’s easier to roughly chop the cookedpotatoes (they’ll break up when youmix the cannonballs) than to try to getthem through the grinder. For yourfirst barrage of cannonballs, try about2/3 as much potato as meat. You canadjust the proportions to taste; youmay want more potato (or need morecannonballs). Put the chopped pota-toes into a bowl big enough to mixeverything up in.

Tip: fasten a gallon plastic bag to theoutlet of the grinderwith a strong rub-ber band and you won’t have to grindin stages into a tiny bowl.

The Mix

1. If you use an egg, break it into yourbowl and beat it with a fork to mixwhite and yolk.

Cut a small to medium cooking(preferably not “sweet”) onion andthe chilled cornedbeef into strips thatwill go through the grinder. Grind themeat, add to the bowl, and grind theonion (my mother always put onionthrough last, to clean the grinder).Dump the meat onto the potatoes,grind on some pepper, andmix lightly


18

If the mix seems sloppy, squeezesome juice from the onion beforeadding it.Mix and knead it all togetherwith your hands.

Note: dehydrated onion would prob-ably be great for cannonballs. Wouldthe mix need to stand for a bit to ab-sorb the onion?

2.Heat a fryingpan. I use the ancestral12-inch cast-iron pan and start it heat-ing on a low fire as I begin to shape thecannonballs.

3. Shape the cannonballs and putthem on a plate. A big serving spoonhelps me keep the shape round (ish).

4. Add fat to the frying pan, about aquarter inch. I like a mixture of oliveoil or other good-tasting vegetable oiland butter. The oil keeps the butterfrom scorching.

5. When there’s a slight haze over thefat, carefully slip the cannonballs intoit from a big spoon, one at a time. Asone side browns, turn them with thehelp of the spoon to keep the shape.No shaking my heavy pan! And turn-ing rather than flipping is safer in-

doors. Eventually, you’ll have some-thing like this. Definitely fried anddefinitely cannonballs, though I’mnot too sure about their ballistic char-acteristics.

And if you can’t get the mixture tohold its shape? Make Man Fridaycakes as Mrs. Walker did.

Recipe 2:Susan’s Recipe

You will need:

Three (at least) slices of dry breadA large frying panA large (serving) spoonA big bowl for mixingAbout a pound of cooked, chilledcorned beef, cut into grinder-sizestripsA small eggA small to medium onion, peeledand slicedMilk (a very small amount)Pepper, nutmeg, garlic: inauthen-tic but tasty additionsFat for cooking (historically but-ter. Add about 1/3 olive or otheroil to keep from scorching)

I like to add few scrapings of nutmegandacloveof garlic.Cookwouldhavenutmegs, but I doubt if any pantry inthe S&A’s books would have allowedgarlic within a mile!

1. If you don’t have well-dried breadhandy, break the slices into smallpieces and put it to dry out in a barelywarm oven (175 to 200°F/ 100°C)well ahead of time. Don’t even thinkabout trying to grind bread, butthrowing it into a food processor tomake little lumps out of big ones ishelpful. (You could toast fresh bread,but the dryer it is the better.)

2. Break an egg into the mixing bowland break it up with a fork. Grind theonion,mixwith the egg, add the breadand toss. Add a good grinding of pep-per and a bit of nutmeg if you wish.

3. Grind the meat, add, and squoosheverything together firmly.

“What if we were to make pemmicancakes?” Man Friday rummaged in thestore box, and found some butter whichwas rather soft. She sniffed at it, and saidit ought to be eaten, anyhow, and morewould have to be got from Mrs. Dixon’sto-morrow. She found some potatoesand also the salt.

Man Friday... peeled some potatoes, andset them to boil in a saucepan at the edgeof the fire. She chopped up thepemmican into very little bits like mince.Then, when the potatoes were soft, shetook them out of the water, and brokethem up, and mixed them with thechopped meat and made half a dozenround flat cakes of pemmican andpotato. Then she put some butter in thefrying-pan and melted it, and then shefried the pemmican cakes till they sizzledand bubbled all over them.

Swallows and Amazons

19


Signals from TARSUS/North Pole News is a joint publication of TARSUS (The Arthur Ransome SocietyUSA) and TARS Canada.

The TARSUS coordinator is Robin Marshall, [email protected]

The TARS Canada coordinator is Ian Sacré, [email protected]

The editor is Simon Horn, [email protected]

Please send contributions, questions and suggestions for the newsletter to the editor.

4. Let the mix firm up while you findthe oil and butter and heat the pan(don’t add fat yet), and hope the mixwill form into fairly solid balls. If itwon’t, add more bread, or somecracker crumbs. If the mix still won’tmake a ball that will hold its shape,make Man Friday cakes or fry it all asa giant hamburger patty and cut inwedges to serve.

The S&A’s obviously had a steel, notcast iron, frying pan:

...a slip, or twist of a weak wrist had beenknown to send all eight cannon balls togetherheadlong into the fire.

Thismethod isnot anoption for a castiron pan unless you’re an Olympic-class weight lifter. I turn the cannon-balls with a spoon, restoring them toa more or less spherical shape also.But first–

7. Finishing: shape the cannonballs.Smaller balls – between golf and ten-nis– are less likely to break apart. Ifyouhave bread or cracker crumbs youcan (inauthentically) roll the balls inthe crumbs. This helps them to keeptheir shape. Let your cannonballs restwhile you add about 1/4" of fat to thepan andheat until there is a slight hazeover the surface. Then carefully slidethe cannonballs fromthe spoon to thepan.

Serve hot.

The Rest of the Meal

Authentic S&A’s fresh “En-glish” (shelled) peas are a rarity nowa-days; use frozen if necessary. We likecole slaw better and it’s very quick tomake– shredded cabbage tossed withmayonnaise mixed with pickle juiceandabit of thegroundonion.Youcancut the mayonnaise with yoghurt orsour cream or use sour cream – sprin-kle a bit of salt and a pinch of sugarover the cabbage. And you can buyslaw-ready ingredients of all kinds in

plastic bags now: cabbage, cabbageand carrot, broccoli slaw, kale slaw,brussels sprout slaw...You don’t necessarily need a starchbecause of the bread in the cannon-balls. Potatoes go well with them butif you’re going to boil potatoes whynot make potato cannonballs...Andof course, blackberry andbananamash for dessert. If you don’t remem-ber the recipe, frozen blackberrieswork well and the rest is self-explana-tory.

Solution to the Book Maze (see p. 15)




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