The Strong Winds series is a series of children's books written by English author Julia Jones. The books reference many of the settings and characters of the Swallows and Amazons series by

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

. The books use adventure stories about

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

to provide action and structure amid developing themes of

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family ...

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...

and corrupt officialdom.

Plot summary

Volume 1 ''The Salt-stained Book''

Donny Walker (aged 13) and his deaf mother Skye travel in a campervan to Shotley to meet Donny's long-lost great aunt Ellen. Following a car accident authorities place Donny in

and his mother in a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

. Donny forms

friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

s with local children, "discovers his inborn prowess as a

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

" and evades a local police officer to find his great aunt.21 July 2011
Fiction for older children
book review page on ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' website, viewed 13 October 2012

Volume 2 ''A Ravelled Flag''

Donny and his growing number of allies are still battling the school and social services, but what first appeared to be immovable bureaucracy is gradually revealed to be criminal malice. Some of the first episode's

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. '' Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a charact ...

s are developed as actively

conspiring A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...

against heroes Donny and Skye, with the motive of exploiting illegal immigrants.Characters develop nicely in book two
on ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a co ...

'' website, viewed 13 October 2012

Volume 3 ''Ghosting Home''

In the conclusion Donny becomes aware that a mysterious red-and-white schooner is a serious threat to his family. Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Min leaves his village in China on the first part of a journey which he hopes will take him to England in search of his mother who left the village seven years before.Ghosting Home review
on The Bookbag website, viewed 8 November 2012

Volume 4 ''The Lion of Sole Bay''

In this un-numbered sequel, previous minor character Luke was planning to spend a school vacation with his father restoring an old fishing boat but his father is seriously injured in a boatyard accident. Meanwhile, interest among boat-mooring neighbours in a Suffolk

pub sign A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

originally from a warship captured in the Battle of Sole Bay in 1672 shows that historic animosity between the English and the Dutch hasn't entirely worked itself out.

Volume 5 ''Black Waters''

Xanthe Ribiero is in hiding. She has made an unforgiving enemy and has taken refuge on a redundant lightship in the Essex marshes. The river Blackwater sparkles in the early summer sun and the weather is set fair for sailing, but the children Xanthe has come to teach are oddly fearful – as if they are in hiding too.

Volume 6 ''Pebble''

Liam's home life is complicated; he struggles to protect his family against unseen dangers but a half-term trip up the Suffolk coast in the Chinese junk ''Strong Winds'' triggers a series of events.

Settings

Locations for the narrative include

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

and

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

; Pin Mill,

Alton Water Alton Water (or Alton Reservoir) is a manmade reservoir located on the Shotley peninsula. It is the largest in Suffolk, with a perimeter of over . Construction Due to a shortage of water in the Ipswich area in the 1960s, a list of twenty poten ...

, River Deben and

Shotley, Suffolk Shotley is a village and civil parish south-east of Ipswich in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the Babergh district and gives its name to the Shotley peninsula between the Rivers Stour and Orwell. The parish includes the village of ...

;

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zee ...

Creating the series

In 2006, while working on a PhD thesis, Julia Jones decided to become a writer of adventure stories like the Swallows and Amazons series of

she had read as a child.biography page
on Julia Jones' personal website, golden-duck.co.uk, viewed 8 July 2011 ''The Salt-Stained Book'', the first part of a planned trilogy, was released in June 2011. Jones hoped the trilogy would "inspire a new generation of children to mess about in boats." A fourth book followed the original trilogy, to make it a 'series'.Julia Jones page
on Amazon.com, viewed 17 October 2013

Allusion

The books contain frequent

allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

's Swallows and Amazons series as well as other works, particularly R.L. Stevenson's '' Treasure Island'' and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely trans ...

's 1855 poem ''

The Song of Hiawatha ''The Song of Hiawatha'' is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of hi ...

''.

Critical reception

Cassandra Jardine Cassandra Caroline Mary Jardine (16 November 1954 – 29 May 2012) was a British journalist, best known as a contributor to ''The Daily Telegraph'' over a twenty-year period. Born in London, the youngest of three daughters, her parents were ...

, reviewing for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', wrote "''The Salt-Stained Book''... is not just a homage to the Swallows and Amazons stories. Donny and Anna, Jones's fictional characters, live in the contemporary world, escaping social workers, rather than pirates. There's far more emotion than in Ransome's books" but "they share the same confident, risk-taking spirit..."Setting sail on Arthur Ransome's boat
on ''

'' website, viewed 13 October 2012

Amanda Craig Amanda Craig (born 1959) is a British novelist, critic and journalist. She was a recipient of the Catherine Pakenham Award. Early life Born in South Africa, Craig grew up in Italy before moving to London. Her parents were British journalist, ...

, reviewing ''The Salt-stained Book'' for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' "...wasn't sure about the historical framing device that gives the novel its title..." but wrote "Among so many children's books that seem machine-tooled, Jones's novel feels like a hand-crafted toy, whose occasional wonkiness only adds to its appeal."Amanda Craig in ''

'', 25 June 2011; mirrored on the reviewer's personal website
Julia Jones, The Salt Stained Book
, viewed 15 October 2012 John Wilson, reviewing ''A Ravelled Flag'' in the ''

'' described the frequent allusions to Ransome, writing "the writer's skill is evident in the constant references not being too leaden in their effect" while Dennis Hamley, for ''Armadillo'' magazine commented "All authors, whether consciously or not, are writing in a tradition. Now and again it is overt so that a book becomes a conscious homage." Sue Magee reviewing ''Ghosting Home'' for The Bookbag wrote "...the series has never fought shy of taking on the big issues. This time it's people-trafficking and Julia Jones doesn't patronise her readers... It's likely to provoke a lot of discussion."

Awards

*In January 2013, ''The Salt-stained Book'' was the monthly winner of The Book Awards people's choice.The Book Awards hall of fame
page on thebookawards.com website, viewed 2 February 2013

Bibliography

Books in the Strong Winds series: * ''The Salt-Stained Book'' (Strong Winds trilogy 1) 16 June 2011 * ''A Ravelled Flag'' (Strong Winds Trilogy 2) 1 November 2011 * ''Ghosting Home'' (Strong Winds Trilogy 3) 2 July 2012 * ''The Lion of Sole Bay'' (Strong Winds Series) 7 October 2013 * ''Black Waters'' (Strong Winds Series) 2 July 2015 * ''Pebble'' (Strong Winds Series) 15 November 2018

References

{{Reflist Series of children's books Sailing books British children's novels 2010s children's books Disability literature