[T]he actress who starred in the children’s classic film Swallows and Amazons (1974) is to return to one of her favourite locations in the Lake District.
Sophie Neville, who played the imaginative Titty Walker, able-seaman of the Swallow, will stay at Elterwater Hostel as a guest of the staff. She’s returning to the Lakes to take part in a marathon day-long reading of the Arthur Ransome story on the shore of Coniston next month. When she mentioned on social media that Elterwater was the scene of her favourite day’s filming in the Lake District, the staff at the hostel sent her an invitation.
“Of all the days we spent filming Swallows and Amazons, the fishing scene, shot in a reedy bay on Elterwater, was the one I enjoyed the most,” Sophie recalls. The youngest character, Roger, caught a giant pike which he thought was a shark. A local fisherman had brought along a number of perch – and a pike – which the set crew had to keep safe until they were needed.
Sophie, whose book The Making of Swallows and Amazons, has just been republished by The Lutterworth Press, will join a host of actors, writers and Ransome fans for the marathon reading session on Sunday September 3, before heading to Elterwater for the night.
“We’re delighted that Sophie is coming back to a location she loved so much,” said the hostel’s Charlie Spiller. “The small lake of Elterwater is only a short walk from our hostel but we had no idea it had been a film location, even though I’m a great fan of the story.”
Elterwater is a small independent hostel, formerly part of the YHA. http://www.elterwaterhostel.co.uk/
The marathon reading of Swallows and Amazons is being organised by the University of Liverpool in association with the Lake District National Park. www.ifnotduffers.org
