The official order of the Swallows and Amazons books by author Arthur Ransome is as follows:
- Swallows and Amazons (1930)
- Coots in the North (1931)
- Winter Holiday (1933)
- Pigeon Post (1936)
- We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (1937)
- Secret Water (1939)
- The Big Six (1940)
- Missee Lee (1941)
- The Picts and the Martyrs (1943)
- Great Northern? (1947)
- Great Northern? (1948)
For those wishing to read the books in a certain order, often people recommend the publication order. This is the order the books were published, rather than the order of their chronological events. The publication order, starting with Swallows and Amazons, is as follows:
- Swallows and Amazons (1930)
- Coots in the North (1931)
- Winter Holiday (1933)
- Pigeon Post (1936)
- We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (1937)
- Secret Water (1939)
- The Big Six (1940)
- Missee Lee (1941)
- The Picts and the Martyrs (1943)
- Great Northern? (1947)
- Great Northern? (1948)
One other version of the books' order is the chronological order, in which we read the books according to Howard and Susan's character progressions, the series of events, and the timeline of the books. In this version, the series starts with Coot in the North (1931) and ends with Missee Lee (1941). The chronological order is as follows:
- Coots in the North (1931)
- Swallows and Amazons (1930)
- Pigeon Post (1936)
- Winter Holiday (1933)
- We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (1937)
- Secret Water (1939)
- The Big Six (1940)
- Missee Lee (1941)
- The Picts and the Martyrs (1943)
- Great Northern? (1947)
- Great Northern? (1948)
No matter which order of the books you choose, reading the Swallows and Amazons series is an enjoyable journey to embark on that has left generations of readers captivated for decades!
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