Winter Holiday [Swallows and Amazons #4]

The Swallows and Amazons series is a series of twelve children's books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series and set between the two World Wars. The twelve books involve adventures by groups of children, almost all during the school holidays and mostly in England, but including four sailing trips that go outside England. The stories revolve around outdoor activities, especially sailing.

Literary scholar Peter Hunt said he believes the series "... changed British literature, affected a whole generation's view of holidays, helped to create the national image of the English Lake District and added Arthur Ransome's name to the select list of classic British children's authors".

The series remains popular today. It contributes to the tourist industry in the Lake District and Norfolk Broads areas of England, where many of the books are set. There are also several societies dedicated to the study and promotion of Ransome's work which are largely inspired by the series. The first one to be founded was the Arthur Ransome Club in Japan. There is also the British-based group, The Arthur Ransome Society, which has an international membership.The series begins with Swallows and Amazons, published in 1930. It tells the story of the Walker children, who sail a dinghy named Swallow, and the Blackett children, who sail a dinghy named Amazon. The Walkers are staying at a farm near a lake during the school holidays; the Blacketts live in a house on the opposite shore. The Walkers consider themselves explorers, while the Blacketts declare themselves to be pirates. The children meet on an island in the lake, and have a series of adventures that weave imaginative tales of pirates and exploration into everyday life in inter-war rural England. In subsequent adventures in the series, the children change roles and become explorers or miners. In the novel Winter Holiday, the children meet Dick and Dorothea Callum, siblings visiting the area. Dick and Dorothea are often referred to as "The Ds" and appear in subsequent novels. Dick considers himself a scientist, while Dorothea sees herself as a writer.

Two of the books feature the Callums without the Swallows or Amazons: Coot Club and The Big Six. They are set in an accurate representation of the Norfolk Broads, particularly the small village of Horning and its surrounding rivers and broads. Two other books are set in Suffolk and Essex around the River Orwell, though one involves a trip across the North Sea to Holland. Two books, Peter Duck and Missee Lee, and possibly also Great Northern?, are metafictional, being fictional stories of the protagonists' voyages to exotic lands, as imagined by the fictional protagonists.--Wikipedia.