Swallows and Amazons

Trace the concept of exploration as it recurs throughout the novel. How might the children’s goal to be first to discover a place relate to the state of the British Empire in 1929?

Both Mother and Jim Turner enter the children’s imaginative games, but in very different ways. Compare their views of the children’s fantasy world and explain what these views show about each character.

Consider the moments in which John finds comfort in the presence of the hills in Chapter 16 and when Titty thinks of how the charcoal burners will still be there when they are gone in Chapter 31. What might the text convey about the nature of change?