Dr Livingstone is often described as an ‘explorer-missionary’. As the author, Julian Lovelock points out, ‘exploring, trading and being a missionary were, in Victorian times, all shades of the same colonial activity. This led me to consider how deeply Arthur Ransome was influenced by missionary journeys of the early 1900s. ‘People would ask me if I was going to convert the natives.’ The archaic idea of berating aboriginal people almost filled me with horror but use of the word ‘natives’ reminded me of Swallows and Amazons. ‘I once went on a short-term mission to Australia,’ I told him. After spending a week at the Keswick Convention, he’d brought his children to see the original film Swallows and Amazons (1974) at the Alhambra cinema where I was giving a Q&A after a screening of the movie. ‘You said Swallows and Amazons has parallels to missionary life but I don’t get it.’ He was a vicar, camping with his family in the Lake District. ‘I can’t see it.’ The man was standing in the rain outside the cinema. An article first published in Mixed Moss, the journal of The Arthur Ransome Society: Sophie Neville who played Titty Walker in ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974)
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