John, Susan, Titty e Roger tornano al lago per un'altra estate in campeggio sulla loro isola con i loro vecchi alleati, Nancy e Peggy, altrimenti noti come i pirati delle Amazzoni. Ma il disastro colpisce immediatamente quando le Rondini si ritrovano abbandonate sulla riva dal naufragio della loro barca. Ma se non possono avere l'isola, c'è sempre Swallowdale, la valle segreta, nascosta al mondo e contenente un segreto extra nascosto al suo interno.
Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and went to school at Rugby. He was in Russia in 1917, and witnessed the Revolution, which he reported for the Manchester Guardian.
After escaping to Scandinavia, he settled in the Lake District with his Russian wife where, in 1929, he wrote Swallows and Amazons. And so began a writing career which has produced some of the real children's treasures of all time. In 1936 he won the first ever Carnegie Medal for his book, Pigeon Post.
Ransome died in 1967. He and his wife Evgenia lie buried in the churchyard of St Paul's Church, Rusland, in the southern Lake District.