Swallowdale begins with the four Swallows sailing towards Wild Cat Island. A year has past, the summer holidays have come again, and they are anticipating renewal of their alliance with the Amazons and their friendship with Captain Flint. Their plans, however, are soon interrupted. Firstly, both their allies and Captain Flint are trapped at Beckfoot by the Amazons' fearsome Great Aunt Maria. Then, when they do briefly escape, John wrecks Swallow, leaving the Walkers unable to camp on the Island.
Dick and Dorothea Callum, colloquially known as "the D's", have come to stay at Dixon's Farm, on the lake shore above Wild Cat Island, for a week at the end of the winter holidays. Whilst there they see, and soon make contact with, the Swallows and the Amazons, who are themselves staying at their usual "native settlements" at Holly Howe and Beckfoot. The Swallows and Amazons explain that they have planned a winter expedition to the North Pole.
Coot Club is the fifth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1934. The book sees Dick and Dorothea Callum visiting the Norfolk Broads during the Easter Holidays, eager to learn to sail and thus impress the Swallows and Amazons when they return to the Lake District later that year. Along with a cast of new characters, Dick and Dorothea explore the North and South Broads and become 'able seamen'.
