Mixed Moss by James Turner

Thanks to Trip Advisor

Title: Mixed Moss

Author: A Rolling Stone (James Turner) 

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

This must be the very first fictional book within a book I ever came across. I first read Swallows and Amazons when I was 7 and I was obsessed with the way the children were allowed to sail around a great big lake all on their own, and camp on an island too! At the time it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t really have enjoyed it. My whole life I’ve been more of a four star hotel kind of girl. And I don’t like swimming, or camping. Or eating out of doors. Or fish.

By the time we encounter James Turner/Captain Flint/Nancy and Peggy’s Uncle Jim, he is in a thoroughly bad mood. He is living on his houseboat, writing his memoirs and perhaps having a bit of a struggle, so he snubs his nieces (Nancy and Peggy/the Amazons) and tells them to keep away. Obviously the Amazons pay no attention: they board the houseboat and steal parrot feathers to decorate their arrows. And set a Roman candle firework to explode on the cabin roof.

Captain Flint decides for no reason that I can see, that the Swallows (John, Susan, Titty and Roger Walker) are responsible for the damage to the houseboat. Beyond thinking wistfully how nice it would be to live on a boat, the Swallows haven’t really given Captain Flint and his houseboat much thought, although Titty decides he must be a retired pirate because he has a canon. Captain Flint tells the natives that the Swallows have been up to no good, but even so Captain John tries to deliver a message from the charcoal burners (“make sure to lock your boat securely”) but Captain Flint won’t let him speak. Worse, he calls John a liar.

Captain Flint gets his comeuppance when credulous locals, believing wild rumours about treasure, steal a locked trunk which contains the manuscript of Captain Flint’s book, all his diaries, and old logs and his typewriter. Luckily, late at night, Titty hears the burglars hiding their loot on Cormorant Island, and goes back with Roger to find it.

When I first read Swallows and Amazons, what struck me was not the theft of a sea chest containing a priceless manuscript (there’s only one copy), but the way none of the adults listen to the children (not even Captain John) and don’t believe anything they say. And then even Mate Susan doesn’t listen to Titty when she says she heard men hiding something in the night. Not very kind.

We don’t ever get much of an idea what Mixed Moss (not a good title if you ask me) might be about. However, we do learn that James Turner has been to South America, Egypt, Japan, China, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Rangoon, Colombo, Melbourne, Hong-Kong, New York, Moscow, and Khartoum. So perhaps he has a lot to write about. In a later book we discover he is a mining engineer.

Thanks to Visit Britain