Swallows and Amazons Series - Illustrations

Illustrations

Part of the charm of the Swallows and Amazons series are the illustrations which were drawn by Ransome himself. The first edition of Swallows and Amazons was published almost without illustrations. Ransome so disliked the pictures by Steven Spurrier that were commissioned by his publisher, Jonathan Cape, that the only pictures in the first edition were the end paper map of the lake and a map of Wild Cat Island. For the second edition, Clifford Webb was commissioned to produce the illustrations which met with grudging approval by Ransome. Webb also illustrated Swallowdale, but Ransome decided that he would personally illustrate the third book Peter Duck. As this book was supposedly based on information supplied by the children themselves, Ransome drew the pictures as though done by the characters. These illustrations were so popular that Ransome illustrated the remainder of his books himself. In 1938, he drew his own pictures for Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale to replace Webb's.

Ransome's pictures were done in pen and ink with no colour, although colours have been added by some publishers in later editions. Typically, figures in the pictures are shown from the back, though there are some which show the faces of a few of the characters. Taqui Altounyan, the oldest of the children to whom the first edition of Swallows and Amazons was dedicated, recalls that "He shirked drawing faces and got over that difficulty with back views of shaggy heads of hair or hats".