Winter Holiday

CHARACTERS Swallows--John, Susan, Titty, Roger Walker
Amazons--Nancy [Ruth], Peggy Blackett
D.'s--Dorothea, Dick Callum
Captain Flint [Jim Turner]
Mr & Mrs Dixon, Silas (Dixon's farmhand), Roy (Dixon's dog), Mrs Blackett (Molly), (postman), Beckfoot Cook, Sammy Lewthwaite (policeman), doctor, Mr & Mrs Jackson, (Bill Bowness...went too far on ice & fell in), smith, Fanny (girl helping Mrs Jackson), Ringman (Jackson's dog), (people who own North Pole), (Mrs Lewthwaite...Sammy's mother)
 
SETTING Lake (Arctic)
 
TIME 12 January - 11 February 1932
 
BOATS houseboat (Fram)
Beckfoot rowboat
Beckfoot sledges (both big & small)
Dixon's sledge
 
TIMELINE

(numbers are days, names are chapter titles)

1

 (12 January)
Strangers • Signalling to Mars

2

 (13 January)
Strangers No More • The Igloo

3

 (14 January)
Skating and the Alphabet

4

 (15 January)
Snow

5

 (16 January)
Arctic Voyage • Lost Leader • Quarantine

6

 (17 January)
Doing Without Nancy

7

 (18 January)
Doing Without Nancy

8

 (19 January)
Doing Without Nancy

9

 (20 January)
Doing Without Nancy

10

 (21 January)
Cragfast Sheep • Ambulance Work

11

 (22 January)
To Spitzbergen By Ice

12

 (23 January)
To Spitzbergen By Ice

13

 (24 January)

14

 (25 January)

15

 (26 January)
Nancy Takes a Hand

16

 (27 January)
Days in the Fram

17

 28 January
Days in the Fram

18

 (29 January)
Sailing Sledge

19

 (30 January)
Sailing Sledge

20

 (31 January)
Sailing Sledge

21

 (1 February)
Nancy Sends a Picture • The Fram at Night

22

 (2 February)
The D.'s Take Charge • Captain Nancy Gets Two Bits of News • Captain Flint Comes Home

23

 (3 February)
Next Morning • The Uses of an Uncle

24

 (4 February)
The Uses of an Uncle

25

 (5 February)
The Uses of an Uncle

26

 (6 February)
The Uses of an Uncle

27

 (7 February)
The Uses of an Uncle

28

 (8 February)
The Uses of an Uncle

29

 (9 February)
The Uses of an Uncle

30

 10 February
Flag at Beckfoot • Council in the Fram • The North Pole • To the Rescue • Arctic Night

31

 (11 February)
And Afterwards
 
NOTES • Mrs Dixon had been Mrs Callum's nurse when she was little (does this mean that Mrs Callum grew up in the Lake District, or did Mrs Dixon move there when she married?)

• The D.'s arrived at the Dixon's the night before the action in the book starts.

• The timeline in this book is a bit harder to pin down--a comment by Dot in Chapter 19 that "3 weeks ago" they watched the boat being rowed to the Island (which is Day 1) overcomes the "and for many days" line in Chapter 15 (the action actually continues right on ); Nancy gets out "1 week" from Day 23, which if it is strictly accurate, puts the action of the trip to the North Pole on Day 30, which we also know is 10 February. By this reckoning, the children have 2 days after the finish of the book before their quarantine ends and they return to school.

• The Callums came to the Dixon's for the last week of the winter holidays while their parents were in Egypt to dig up remains; the Walkers were at Holly Howe since Christmas, and Mrs Walker and Bridget left for Malta (on Day 1 of the story) where Daddy's ship is stationed for a time.

• The D.'s had spent every day of the holidays at an indoor skating rink near the University buildings at home (Oxford? Cambridge? London?); Titty and Roger were skating for the first time, John and Susan had some at school the winter before.

• The Walkers lived "mostly in the south."

• Mrs Callum's birthday is March 7th.

• Nook Farm is up the valley from Beckfoot between the fells.

• Day 7 of the story was supposed to be the last day before going back to school for the children.

• The Swainsons live at Low End.

• Bob is the name of the porter and guard at the Rio railway station; he's been there for 30 years.

• Mr Dixon's sheep mark is a red patch on the left shoulder.

• Uncle Jim was supposed to be abroad for the winter, but returned to experience the big freeze of the Lake; Gibber the monkey is at the Zoo.

• Books found in the houseboat include: The Riddle of the Sands, Nansen's Farthest North, The First Crossing of Greenland, and Peary's North Pole.

• The D.'s don't have any uncles.

• Roger has matches in his pocket during the relief expedition, and is proud to be properly prepared; perhaps the family rule is not to light candles in the bedroom (the time when the "family rule" is mentioned)?
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