Last updated at 15:01, Monday, 18 June 2012

THE remarkable family whose exploits in the Lake District inspired one of the most enduring tales in children’s literature is the subject of a new book.

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A Lakeland Saga by Jeremy Collingwood delves into the life and times of the Collingwood and Altounyan family both in Lanehead, Coniston, and Aleppo, Syria.

The antics of Dora Collingwood and Ernest Altounyan’s five children in the Lake District in 1928 inspired Arthur Ransome’s classic book Swallows and Amazons two years later.

But while it was the pair’s offspring who became immortalised in print and later on film, Mr Collingwood – the children’s third cousin – details the achievements of the whole family.

Ms Collingwood was the daughter of archaeologist and novelist WG Collingwood, of Coniston, who became the Lake District’s pre-eminent historian and antiquarian.

In 1915, she married Syrian doctor Ernest Altounyan – reportedly after turning down an offer of marriage from Mr Ransome – and moved to Aleppo with him.

Dr Altounyan – the son of an Armenian father and Irish mother, who was educated at Rugby, England – opened a hospital there and played host to King Feisal, befriended TE Lawrence and protected Armenian refugees fleeing the genocide in Turkey.

The pair had five children – Taqui, Susie, Mavis (known as Titty), Roger and Brigit – and in 1928, when they were holidaying in the Lake District, Mr Ransome taught them to sail.

Mr Collingwood, who is a retired Anglican minister that has formerly worked as a lawyer in Zambia and London, wrote the book after Brigit gave him research papers and documents on the family just prior to her death.

“This is the story of a family whose lives pivoted between the very English setting of the Lake District and the exoticism of Aleppo and Jerusalem,” he said.

“It touches on the family’s connections with Arthur Ransome and his Swallows and Amazons, the Oxford world of idealistic philosophy, and characters such as John Ruskin and Lawrence of Arabia.”

“The story is fascinating both from the point of view of the personalities and places involved.”

A Lakeland Saga is published by Sigma Press and available from all good booksellers.

First published at 13:09, Monday, 18 June 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk