Books like 'Swallowdale'
Readers who enjoyed Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure 20th century military, war & conflict classics historical-fiction children family nautical season-summer
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Manöver um Feuerland (The Far Side of the World) by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey sets sail for Cape Horn, determined to intercept an American frigate before it can wreak havoc on the British whaling trade. As always, he is accompanied by intelligence operative Stephen Maturin, and as always, Aubrey has no idea of what his companion is up to...Categorized as:
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The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he did not commit. His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually cast as a ship's surgeon to mask his discreet activities on behalf of British Intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his former ship the Surprise to command as a privateer, more politely termed a letter of marque...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Sodan mainingit by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThese two classic works capture the tide of world events even as they unfold the compelling tale of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.The multimillion-copy bestsellers that capture all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War -- and that constitute Wouk's crowning achievement -- are available for the first time in trade paperback...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Nellie's Heartbreak: A compelling saga from the bestselling author the Mulberry Lane and Harpers Emporium series by Rosie Clarke
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA new stand-alone saga set in Yorkshire around out the outbreak of the second world war and the unlikely relationship between a master and servant.As a small child, Nellie Peace was always dreaming but sensed her mother’s rejection... -
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Eagles Over Britain by Lee Jackson
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe German Luftwaffe attacks Britain from the skies.With no allies, she stands alone.Her fate hangs in the balance.As the first Axis aircraft streak across English Channel airspace, so begins a battle for the ages; one that will determine the trajectory of the war...Categorized as:
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The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsHaving survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Geheimauftrag Mauritius by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reacute union...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian, Simon Vance
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsShipwrecked on a remote island and threatened by Malay pirates, Captain Aubrey and crew barely escape before facing a diplomatic crisis at the harrowingly dreadful penal colony in New South Wales...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAshore between cruises, Captain Jack Aubrey is persuaded to sink some money into an investment scheme. Soon this innocent decision enmeshes him in various criminal and even treasonous enterprises, which threaten to destroy his entire career. Bad luck? A deliberate plot? Read this latest installment of the Aubrey-Maturin saga to find out...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsCaptain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following reinstatement into the Royal Navy. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans. A killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
A Code for Tomorrow by John J. Gobbell
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“The sea action is exciting and thoroughly convincing.” —Kirkus Reviews Todd Ingram is back in the fight. After narrowly escaping the Japanese-held Philippines, he is promoted to the destroyer USS Howell.His new assignment puts him in the middle of two epic naval engagements: the Battle of Cape Esperance and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands... -
Always in my Heart by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs the Japanese begin their assault on Singapore, Sarah Fuller is forced to leave her parents and fianc�, Philip, behind. The long journey to England is fraught with danger, and Sarah and her sister Jane don't even know if their great-aunt is alive, let alone waiting for them. They arrive in Cliffehaven, on the south coast of England, and here Sarah must find work to support them both... -
The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsLife ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Truelove by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the sandwich islands at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey, R. N., Is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies...Categorized as:
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The Long, Long Trail 1917 by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn 1917 the Great War rages on, and for the Hunters, their friends and their servants the war is where they live now. David has returned from the Front a shadow of his former self; his sister Diana, newly married, copes with pregnancy alone, her husband at the Front... -
Gone to Sea in a Bucket by David Black
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLike all young men of a certain age, Harry Gilmour had his own notion of how a naval battle should be. This wasn’t it.Norway, 1940: Sub Lieutenant Harry Gilmour’s first encounter with battleship action is not the adventure he had hoped for. Faced with a thankless task and ill equipped to handle it, Gilmour’s inexperience leads to a damning allegation. His future hangs in the balance...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Beat to Quarters by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJune 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles...Categorized as:
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Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn this gripping tale of turmoil and triumph on the high seas, Horatio Hornblower emerges from his apprenticeship as midshipman to face new responsibilities thrust upon him by the fortunes of war between Napoleon and Spain...Categorized as:
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A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom acclaimed novelist Mark Helprin, a lush, literary epic about love, beauty, and the world at war.Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege: he races horses across the country to the sea, he climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love...Categorized as:
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Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsNapoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace brings with it both the desertion of nearly half of Captain Aubrey's crew and the sudden dimming of Aubrey's career prospects in a peacetime navy...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Hornblower and the Hotspur by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHornblower's reconnaissance mission quickly turns to warfare in this installment of the beloved series of naval adventures by C. S. Forester, "a master of the genre" (New York Times). April 1803. The Peace of Amiens is breaking down. Napoleon is building ships and amassing an army just across the Channel...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical season-summer 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Back to Battle by Max Hennessy, John Harris
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe crescendo of war; a crushing blow; a path to redemption... Peacetime political maneuverings are threatening Kelly Maguire’s ambitions for captain’s rank. But the outbreak of war, and the need for those who are willing to risk everything, changes all that...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Pocketful of Dreams: A Heart-Warming East End Saga by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJean Fullerton, queen of the saga, returns with a charming new war-time series. It's 1939, and the Brogan family of London's East End are ready to show Hitler what-for. But things don't seem so rosy when rationing, evacuation, and air-raids start to put this larger-than-life family to the test...Categorized as:
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North and South by John Jakes
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsPart history, part novel, this book chronicles two great American dynasties over three generations. Though brought together in a friendship that neither jealousy nor violence could shatter, the Hazards and the Mains are torn apart by the storm of events that has divided the nation... -
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Rosa's Gold - A Story of Holocaust Echoes by Ray Kingfisher
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNicole Sutton is a young girl with problems. A tragic car accident has taken away her brother, and ripped her parents' marriage apart. Together with her mother she moves to a new house, a new town, and a life she never wanted. In the dusty cellar of the house she stumbles upon a well-worn notebook – the scribbled war memoirs of Mac, an old soldier... -
Flying Colours by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsForced to surrender his ship, the Sutherland, after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress...Categorized as:
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The Oceans Between Us by Gill Thompson
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsInspired by heartrending real events, a mother fights to find her son and a child battles for survival in this riveting debut novel.For readers of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, The Letter by Kathryn Hughes, and Remember Me by Lesley Pearse.A woman is found wandering injured in London after an air raid.She remembers nothing of who she is... -
The Iceman by P.T. Deutermann
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Iceman is an action-packed World War II military thriller featuring a daring United States Navy submarine commander during the Pacific war in 1942-43.In 1942, off the port city of St. Nazaire in occupied France, a United States Navy S-class submarine assigned to the Royal Navy lurks just outside the borders of the minefield protecting a German U-boat base...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Little Ship: A heart-warming, sweeping wartime saga full of heart which will stay with you for ages by Margaret Mayhew
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSet largely on the Essex coast before the war, Matt, Guy, and their young cousin Lizzie meet up for holidays and bum around in an old boat. Guy is the eldest, handsome, skilled at everything, a tad selfish. Matt is quieter and has a crippled right arm... -
Final Harbor: Volume 1 by Harry Homewood
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA DEADLY GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK She was a monster, sleek and gleaming, designed to strike without warning like the dreaded shark. She was the USS Mako, as fearless and bold as any submarine that ever prowled the blue Pacific. Her mission: seek out and destroy the hitherto invincible ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy — and revenge the earlier defeats of a long and dirty war...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Sharpe's Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsJune 1815: The Duke of Wellington, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon will meet on the battlefield...and decide the fate of EuropeWith the emperor Napoleon at its head, and enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels - in preparation for a grand society ball...Categorized as:
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Harm's Way by James Bassett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRockwell Terry is a career naval captain who has served since WWI. Now is the dawn of another world war as his ship patrols outside Pearl Harbor. He leads a sheltered life, goes nowhere and sees no one. With the outbreak of the war, his past begins to emerge...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
Command by Antony Melville-Ross
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrozen fingers, broken bones, shattered hearts… the situation could not get worse. Or so Lieutenant Peter Harding thought. The Trigger has just left UK shores and is on its way to northern Norway when the relentless storm hits. Harding’s crew are barely surviving the Artic conditions which face them...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Lion at Sea by Max Hennessy
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMidshipman Kelly Maguire has always had a love affair with the sea. And when war clouds gather over Europe, Maguire is put to the test along with the marine might of the Royal Navy. From the Hellish battles of Gallipoli to the barbarous action at Antwerp, Maguire begins to learn the lessons a sailor must face. Glory and danger abound in this sizzling saga of adventure, blood and guts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
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Ship of the Line by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsHornblower leads his first ship of the line into enemy waters in this installment of C. S. Forester's beloved adventure series, called "exciting, realistic, packed with grand naval action" by the New Yorker. May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars...Categorized as:
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War Horse by Nick Stafford, Michael Morpurgo
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI want you to do yourself proud, Joey. You go and drive those Germans back where they've come from, and then come home to me.At the outbreak of World War one, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Caught up in enemy fire, fate takes Joey on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land...Categorized as:
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Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA novel tells the story of a man who leads an ordinary, uneventful life, until overnight he becomes the trustee of his 10-year-old niece, and involved in the search for some missing money...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Orlovi rano lete by Branko Ćopić
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsU ovom romanu se govori o grupi dječaka. Oni su učenici četvrtog razreda u Lipovu - jednom bosanskom selu. Na početku oni žive sretan i bezbrižni dječji život. Njihova učiteljica zove se Lana i oni je jako vole.Kada je učiteljica otišla u varoš, na njezinom mjesto dolazi učitelj kojeg su dječaci prozvali paprika. Učitelj je jako maltretirao i tukao djecu tako da su djeca počela bježati od škole...Categorized as:
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Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWe weren't supposed to be going to the pictures that night. We weren't even meant to be outside, not in a blackout, and definitely not when German bombs had been falling on London all month like pennies from a jar. February, 1941. After months of bombing raids in London, twelve-year-old Olive Bradshaw and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast...Categorized as:
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Gone To Soldiers by Marge Piercy
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn a stunning tour-de-force, Marge Piercy has woven a tapestry of World War II, of six women and four men, who fought and died, worked and worried, and moved through the dizzying days of the war. A compelling chronicle of humans in conflict with inhuman events, GONE TO SOLIDERS is an unforgettable reading experience and a stirring tribute to the remarkable survival of the human spirit."Panoramic.Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction military 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt is autumn, 1941, and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Final Storm by Jeff Shaara
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Final Storm opens a new front in Jeff Shaara’s gripping chronicle of World War II as soldiers, sailors, and marines sacrifice all for one final push toward decisive victory in the fierce maelstrom of the Pacific theater. As the war in Europe winds down in the wake of the Normandy invasion, the United States has turned its vast military resources toward an all-out effort against the Japanese...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military nautical 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIt is an epic drama of adventure, courage, ruthlessness and passion by one of Scandinavia’s most acclaimed storytellers.In 1848 a motley crew of Danish sailors sets sail from the small island town of Marstal to fight the Germans. Not all of them return – and those who do will never be the same...Categorized as:
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We Fly Beneath the Stars by Suzanne Kelman
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1942, Europe: Based on the true story of a female-only bomber battalion, this is a totally heartbreaking and unforgettable story about sacrifice, sisterhood and a love that transcends war.When the love of Tasha’s life, Luca, joins the air force to fight against the evil Nazi invaders, she knows she has to follow her heart—and him—into battle...Categorized as:
historical-fiction military family ww2 historical fiction action-adventure audiobook -
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Hornblower and the Atropos by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIn the wake of a humbling incident aboard a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower's command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson...Categorized as:
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The Wren and the Swordfish Pilot by Stella Hutchinson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHeart-warming, courageous, and ultimately uplifting – for all lovers of World War Two historical fiction.When Cathy’s twin brother is called to serve in the Royal Navy, she leaps at the chance to join the Wrens, which by 1942, has grown into a strong force of over sixty thousand women. But she longs to be at sea and prove herself – to fight alongside her brother... -
Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBritish airman Dym Ingleford is convinced that the young German prisoner, Max Eckermann, is his brother Anthony who was kidnapped years before...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction military 20th-century action-adventure book children-books -
The Heart of the Family by Annie Groves
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe much-loved author of ACROSS THE MERSEY tells of Liverpool under bombardment as never before – but the Campion family refuses to give in.The Campions have always stuck together through danger and sorrow, but even they begin to wonder if it’s time to take their youngest, the twins, to safety away from the bombing raids...Categorized as:
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Ellie Pride by Annie Groves
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA stunning saga debut from an author destined to be a star of the genre -- ELLIE PRIDE is an engrossing, heartrending story of love, passion, duty and family, set in the North-east in the early part of the twentieth century. A stirring tale charting the life of Ellie Pride, a beautiful Preston girl who, when her mother dies, must forge her own way in the world...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction military 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHere we meet Horatio Hornblower, a young man of 17, in this Volume #1 of what becomes the 11 volume set about the career of this British Naval officer fighting against Napoleon and his tyranny of Europe as an inexperienced midshipman in January 1794. Bullied and forced into a duel, he takes an even chance...Categorized as:
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