How many of the Swallows & Amazons stories are metafictional?

Question

When reading the classical children's book series Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, I started with the eponymous first book Swallows and Amazons, but read Peter Duck before Swallowdale. Thus, I first read Peter Duck in the same spirit as the other stories - the children going on boats and having adventures, albeit rather more thrilling adventures than their usual summer-holiday fare. It was only after reading Swallowdale that I realised Peter Duck was actually metafictional: considered to be a work of fiction even within the world of the Swallows and Amazons.

It was much later that I read Missee Lee, which I assumed to be in the same metafictional category. Although not featuring the character of Peter Duck, it does seem to follow on from the novel Peter Duck, and it similarly stretches the reader's suspension of disbelief much more than most of the books in the series.

Other candidates for possibly being metafictional include Great Northern (which also features the boat Wild Cat) and Pigeon Post (wherein, if I recall correctly, the children successfully dowse and mine copper). But these I'm less sure of.

Which of the books in the Swallows and Amazons series are considered to be metafictional?

This question would probably be best answered using intertextual references (Peter Duck, for instance, is clearly metafictional because of the way it's described in Swallowdale - are there other inter-book references like this?), but I'm open to being convinced by other evidence too.

Answer 1

As far as I recall Peter Duck is the only explicitly metafictional story in the series. As you recall it is specifically mentioned that Peter Duck is a fictional character (within the S&A 'universe'). Indeed, in Swallowdale it is mentioned that the 'story' of Peter Duck was contrived in the 'long winter nights' on a wherry with Captain Flint (James Turner).

Regarding Pigeon Post, I would say that this story is part of the real S&A 'universe' purely because the subsequent story The Picts and the Martyrs follows on from it and makes references to the story throughout.

Regarding Missee Lee, there're no obvious contradictions in the text that state (as in the case of Swallowdale/Peter Duck) that this is a metafictional tale. However, the ship that they sail ('Wild Cat') is the same as in Peter Duck. This would imply that the work is metafictional.

According to Wikipedia ( LINK ) :

Two books, Peter Duck and Missee Lee, and possibly also Great Northern?, are metafictional, being fictional stories of the protagonists' voyages to exotic lands, as imagined by the fictional protagonists.

In my opinion Great Northern is by far the most plausible of the three and I wouldn't consider it a metafiction.

Some more information:

However, Arthur Ransome himself made it clear that this story was not metafiction. Writing to Myles North, discussing the book's dedication, he says:

...At all costs it must do nothing to weaken the reality ... nothing to suggest that it is a mere story and not the record of an actual happening, even if for bird protection's sake, the details are somewhat disguised. (AR's own emphasis)

From Wikipedia Great Northern page

Some further information about 'Peter Duck Stories'.