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This article is about the book. For the club itself, see The Coot Club.

Coot Club is the fifth book of the Swallows and Amazons series, published in 1934. The action takes place on 22 April - 6 May 1932. Dick and Dorothea Callum are planning to stay with Mrs Barrable aboard a yacht on the Norfolk Broads during the Easter Holidays. They are eager to learn to sail and thus impress the Swallows and Amazons when they return to the Lake later that year. Dick and Dorothea explore the North and South Broads with members of the Coot Club and learn enough to become able seamen.

Characters

  • the Ds: Dorothea, Dick Callum
  • Tom Dudgeon
  • Admiral Mrs Barrable
  • William the Pug
  • Port and Starboard: Bess (Port) & Nell (Starboard) Farland
  • Bill, Pete, Joe (the Death and Glories)
  • Hullabaloos: James, Ronald, 'Livy, a fat man, and one more woman
  • minor characters (those in parentheses are "offstage"): Frank Farland "A.P.", Dr Dudgeon & Mrs Ella Dudgeon, "Our Baby" Dudgeon, Mrs McGinty, Jim Wooddall, Simon Fastgate, George Owdon, Mr Tedder, Ratty Joe's rat, (stomach-ache boy Robin at Acle), Mr Jack & Mrs Whittle, Mr Hawkins, Old Bob, Breydon pilot, (Richard, Mrs Barrable's brother), (Mrs Millett...has houseboat with china upset by Hullabaloos), (Walters...works in Mr Farland's office), 4 Yarmouth wreckers, guard, porter, and ticket inspector at Thorpe terminus, stationmaster at Wroxham station, farm boy (with milk for Teasel), grocer in Horning, battery man in Wroxham, boy watching for Margoletta at Potter, "Stop Me and Buy One" boy at Potter, eel-man by Horning Hall, old sailor (same as later old man?) on bridge at Acle, provision boat man, boy in Yarmouth by figurehead, sailor on schooner by quay in Yarmouth, man on railway bridge in Yarmouth, signalman at Herringfleet swingbridge, man on the Corporation Yacht Station, 2 men on bridge at end of New Cut, eel fisherman at Beccles, boy on Post Office bicycle at Beccles, harbourmaster at Oulton, man working on dismantling sailboat at Brundalll, signalman at Reedham railway bridge, young man and girl at Berney Arms, old fisherman at Yarmouth

Boats

Titmouse, Teasel, motor-launch, Death and Glory, Flash, Sir Garnet, Dreadnought, Margoletta, Teasel's dinghy, Dr Dudgeon's fishing boat, the Farland's rowing boat, Come Along, Welcome of Rochester

Plot summary

The Ds plan to spend their Easter Holidays learning to sail with a family friend, Mrs Barrable aboard a small yacht called the Teasel, moored near the village of Horning. However, Mrs Barrable's brother has to leave and Mrs Barrable isn't comfortable about taking two beginners sailing.

A noisy and inconsiderate party of city-dwellers (dubbed the 'Hullabaloos' by the children) aboard the hired motor cruiser Margoletta threaten Number 7 nest by mooring in front of it. This nest is home of the coot with the white feather which is a mascot of the Coot Club and one of many of its monitored nests. Despite warnings "not to mix with foreigners", Tom stealthily loosens the Margoletta's moorings to save the nest and later hides behind the Teasel. Mrs. Barrable does not give Tom away to the Hullabaloos and instead asks him to teach the Callums to sail. Tom involves some of the other members of the Coot Club, the twin girls Port and Starboard Farland, and three younger boys — Joe, Bill and Pete (the Death and Glories).

Tom, Port and Starboard join the crew of the Teasel with Mrs. Barrable and her dog William, the children teach Dick and Dorothea the basics of sailing up and down the Broads. Dick shares the Coot Club's keen interest in the local birds, and Dorothea uses the voyage as fodder for her new story, "The Outlaw Of The Broads" based on the Hullabaloos' vow to catch Tom. The crew of the Teasel are persued all over the Broads until the Hullabaloos crash the Margoletta in the perilously tidal Breydon Water — necessitating a dramatic salvage by the Death and Glory.


Timeline

(Dates in 1932, names are chapter titles)

  • 22 April: Just in Time • Disappointment • What's the Good of Planning • The Only Thing To Do • Aboard the Teasel • Put Yourself in His Place
  • 23 April: Invitation • The Innocents • The Making of an Outlaw
  • 24 April: Lying Low
  • 25 April: Lying Low
  • 26 April: Lying Low
  • 27 April: Tom in Danger • Under the Enemy's Nose • The Titmouse Disguised
  • 28 April: The Titmouse Disguised
  • 29 April: Neighbours at Potter Heigham
  • 30 April: Neighbours at Potter Heigham • Port and Starboard Say Good-Bye
  • 1 May: Southward Bound • Port and Starboard Miss Their Ship • Through Yarmouth • Sir Garnet Obliges Friends • While the Wind Holds • Come Along and Welcome
  • 2 May: The Return of the Native
  • 3 May: Storm Over Oulton
  • 4 May: Recall
  • 5 May: Recall
  • 6 May: The Rashness of the Admiral • The Titmouse on the Fog • William's Heroic Moment • Wreck and Salvage • Face to Face
  • unknown later dates: Postscript

Notes

  • Nell Farland has curly hair and is right-handed; Bess Farland is left-handed.
  • Frank Farland is a solicitor with his office in Norwich
  • Mrs McGinty is a widow of an Irishman but was born in Glasgow
  • "Our baby" is a boy.
  • On their train journey from home to Norwich, the Ds came through Ipswich and Colchester
  • Tom's birthday was probably not too long before the story starts, as the stuff from Norwich was a "birthday present" (probably bought with birthday money).
  • The Amazons are away with Uncle Jim; the Swallows are in the south with their father who is home on leave.
  • Mrs Barrable was Mrs Callum's school mistress long ago; she is a painter and the sister of a famous portrait painter; she was born at Beccles.
  • Mr & Mrs Callum are at a conference of archaeologists up on the Roman wall (near Carlisle).
  • Mrs Farland died when Port and Starboard were babies.
  • Margoletta was let from Rodley's of Wroxham.
  • Port and Starboard go away to school; Tom and the Death & Glories go to school locally.
  • Teasel had been moored for over a week prior to Day 1 of the story.
  • There seem to have been other run-ins with George Owdon previous to this story:Mr Farland refers to him as "your dear friend George" in a sarcastic manner.
  • Jim Woodall thinks Grizzled Skipper is the most likely boat to win the championship, and which Flash will challenge.


  • According to Brogan (Life page 336), when Ransome was writing Coot Club he borrowed the Ancient Mariner’s views on cooking bacon, and bestowed them on Simon Fastgate. Tom’s parent’s were awarded a new baby to keep them out of the way. Thinking of the villain, the treacherous Norfolk Coot, he wrote that George Owdon must never be heard to speak throughout the book (like the G.A. in Swallowdale) but seen.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The BBC produced a TV series based on Coot Club in 1984[1]

For the book of the TV series see Swallows and Amazons for Ever; the book is an abridgement of Coot Club and The Big Six .

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series

Swallows and Amazons | 'Their Own Story' | Swallowdale | Peter Duck | Winter Holiday | Coot Club | Pigeon Post | We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea | The Big Six | Secret Water | Missee Lee | The Picts and the Martyrs | 'Coots in the North' | Great Northern?

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This page uses content from Guide to Swallows and Amazons series by kind permission of Bill Wright.
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