Sophie Neville, president of The Arthur Ransome Society, will be in Cumbria this Thursday (May 24) to give a 45th anniversary talk on 'The Making of Swallows and Amazons' in Braithwaite.

Sophie, who played Titty in the original movie of Swallows and Amazons (1974), will be speaking about the sequences filmed on the lakes when The Lady Derwentwater starred as Captain Flint's houseboat.

The boat's appearance was transformed by Ian Whittaker, who went on to win an Oscar for set decoration on the movie 'Howards End' and received Oscar nominations for 'Alien', 'Remains of the Day', and 'Anna and the King', which starred Jodie Foster.

The event, which starts at 7.30pm, will be held at the Braithwaite Institute.

During this coming weekend 'Swallows and Amazons' will be celebrated over three days with a series of events organised by The Arthur Ransome Society - now the second biggest literary in the UK.

"We plan to visit the houses where Arthur Ransome lived, explore the Coppermines valley, go out in Gondola and sail on Coniston Water in Swallow, the dinghy which starred in the original film of 'Swallows and Amazons'," said Sophie.

"The idea is to encourage children to put down their screens and enjoy the great outdoors.

"The society offers grants for young people to engage in Ransome-inspired activities, such as rock climbing or sailing. I'll be speaking about how Mrs Batty of Bank Ground Farm locked out our film crew. She padlocked the gates, furious that Ian Whittaker had 'ripped-up' her lino."

"Barbara Altounyan will be joining us this weekend. It was her father Dr Roger Altounyan who inspired Ransome's character Roger Walker. He went on to invent the asthma inhaler, improving life for millions of sufferers.

"Barbara profiled him in a documentary called 'Hair Soup', when he was portrayed by David Suchet. Barbara is coming with her boyfriend John who, as a child, appeared in the film 'Whistle Down the Wind' with Hayley Mills and Alan Bates.

"It was made on location in Downham near Clitheroe where he grew up.

"Rob Boden, of Kendal, will take Swallow up to Keswick on July 28, when the Alhambra Cinema is screening both the 1974 and 2016 'Swallows and Amazons' movies.

"I will be meeting film fans and giving a Q&A, demonstrating how one of the visual effects was achieved. This was a scary and rather dangerous-looking shot, which was cut from the TV version of the film."