Wansworth
Well-known member
Adventures in the1930s how little has changed in many ways,I can certainly relate to his stories
Re reading Majic of the Swatchways by M Griffiths
- Thread starter Wansworth
- Start date
Boathook
Well-known member
I suspect that if he saw the East Coast today he wouldn't recognise a lot of it with marinas and so many moorings where he possibly used to anchor. Either way a good read.
LittleSister
Well-known member
I love it. On one level a whole different world from today, but still very relatable, as you say.
I must read it yet again.
He did another book of the same sort some time later - I've forgotten the title and date (50s, 60s?) just now - and while it's also good, if not quite as 'magic', in parts it's somewhat soured by him bemoaning the intervening changes.
DanTribe
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Possibly Swatchways and little ships?
Boathook
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First published in 1971 looking at my book, a paperback.
Wansworth
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Are we stuck in a time warp,why do we relate to this period and the whole thing of splashing about in little boats.My wife suggested I need a boat but it won’t be the same here in Galicia…..for one thing the sun keeps bloody shining,there’s no damp although come Autumn it will be better with softer winds and empty anchourages
tillergirl
Well-known member
First published 1932.
How little has changed? Page 62 - West Buxey buoy - ain't there anymore. Rayn channel - ho-ho. Page 63 - Buxey Beacon - aint' there anymore - well at least Navionics says it's gone and we all know they know best. (It is still there). Maplin Lighthouse - whoops, it fell over. Actually detail might have changed but every experience could occur today just somewhere closeby.
Lovely book and an important designer who brought many into sailing. He was pretty important in the war defusing mines as well.
LittleSister
Well-known member
I've mentioned before that I first read a friend's old copy of Magic of the Swatchways. I later saw a paperback copy and bought it to read again. It somehow just didn't seem right, though, so I then bought an old second-hand hard-back copy, complete with properly authentic yellowed pages and musty smell! 
p.s. I've just rediscovered it's apparently a first edition (though the individual stories had first been published in Yachting Monthly), and has a handwritten note in the front showing it was given as a birthday present to someone March 31st 1934.
p.s. I've just rediscovered it's apparently a first edition (though the individual stories had first been published in Yachting Monthly), and has a handwritten note in the front showing it was given as a birthday present to someone March 31st 1934.
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Poignard
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And you'd need kippers for supper.
LittleSister
Well-known member
Yes, that's the one.
Magic of the Swatchways was 1932. (So stories based on 1920s!)
I think Boathook was referring to 'Swatchways and Little Ships', which was indeed first published in 1971 (I hadn't realised it was that late), and then in paperback 1987.
Tranona
Well-known member
He was just as engaging as a person as in his writing. I met him a couple of times when he was in his 80s and he kindly signed some of my copies of his books. I had my first MG boat from 1980 to 2019 and now have another.
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srm
Well-known member
From the Forward to "The First of the Tide" 1979.
"Some forty-seven years have elapsed since my first book . . . .
"Since then great changes have come over these same waters. . . .
"The yachting scene has indeed changed beyond all recognition since the Hitler war, . . . "
"Some forty-seven years have elapsed since my first book . . . .
"Since then great changes have come over these same waters. . . .
"The yachting scene has indeed changed beyond all recognition since the Hitler war, . . . "
Boathook
Well-known member
I replied to @Dan Tribe post about swatchways and little ships
johnalison
Well-known member
I enjoyed the book, but if I didn't fully warm to it that was probably because I've got a poor paperback edition with a photo of a Wayfarer on the cover. My favourite tale from the book is that of when he went aground near HW springs in Alresford Creek and had to dig himself out in front of a couple of locals that wanted to charge him a fortune to help. Needless to say, MG came out top in the end.
ianc1200
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Currently changing the filters on Storm, heavily feautured in MotS. Alas no longer has it's Kelvin 3.5hp parafin/petrol engine though.
LittleSister
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LittleSister
Well-known member
And how right she is!
Because despite all the contemporary luxuries, gadgetry, crowding and costs, the essence of having modest adventures, being master of our own little ship, immersing ourselves (hopefully not literally) in our surroundings, and pitting our wits against the vagaries of wind, tide and boat gremlins remains fundamentally unchanged.
As Joyce Sleightholme put it (perhaps not in these exact words) in The Seawife's Handbook, "As a means of getting from A to B, sailing in a small boat has little to commend it: it is slow and often uncomfortable. But as a means of leaving behind the cares and troubles of everyday life there is nothing better.'
ianc1200
Well-known member
Nightfall, MG's boat after Storm, won the big gaffers class at the Swale match 5 days ago.
Mark-1
Well-known member
He played a part in those changes, of course. The moorings cluttering up the water were often for boats he designed and the increase in number of people sailing was fueled to an extent by his (excellent) writing.
No doubt it was going to happen anyway but even so.
DownWest
Well-known member
It sites by our downstairs loo....
