 First edition | |
| Author | Arthur Ransome |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Swallows and Amazons |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
Publication date | 28 November 1939 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-1-56792-064-2 (David R. Godine, Publisher: paperback, 1996) |
| Preceded by | We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea |
| Followed by | The Big Six |
Secret Water is the eighth book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published on 28 November 1939.[1]
This book is set in and around Hamford Water in Essex, close to the resort town of Walton-on-the-Naze.[2] It starts only a few days after We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea ends.
It brings the Swallows and the Amazons together and introduces a new group of characters, the Eels and the Mastodon. Ransome used to sail to Hamford Water, an area of tidal salt marshes and low-lying islands, in his yacht Nancy Blackett. He set the book here to offer his characters new opportunities to explore and make maps in a different landscape.
- ^ Dudley Edwards, Owen (2007). British Children's Fiction in the Second World War. Edinburgh University Press. p.120.
- ^ Hardyment, Christina (1984). Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's trunk. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 186. ISBN 0224029894.