Events in December[]
Events described in 'Their Own Story':
- 27 December 1930:(TOS1 & SD4): Swallows, Amazons and Captain Flint are holidaying in the Norfolk Broads on board a wherry, the Polly Ann. They discuss the recently-published book, Swallows and Amazons and propose telling a story of their own.
- 28 December (TOS2): Mr Duck proposes the name Wild Cat (after Wild Cat Island) for the schooner in their story, they move Polly Ann to avoid being frozen in, and Titty comes up with the main plot for their story.
This story becomes the metafictional Peter Duck.
Real events in December[]
- 30 December 1917: Arthur Ransome meets Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina. They live together in Estonia from 1919 to 1924, when they married and moved to England (SFM).
- 7 December 1944: Edith Ransome, Arthur's mother, dies in Leeds.
- December 1942: Arthur shows his mother the book The Picts and the Martyrs; she likes it.
- 1 December 1930, Swallows and Amazons hardback (First edition, unillustrated) is published by Jonathan Cape