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This book places children´s literature at the forefront of early twentieth-century debates about national identity and class relations that were expressed through the pursuit of leisure. Focusing on stories about hiking, camping and sailing, this book offers a fresh insight into a popular period of modern British cultural and political history.

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1. Introduction 2. A Very Fuzzy Set-Defining Camping and Tramping Fiction 3. The Delights of the Open Road, Footloose and Fancy Free 4. Landscape and Tourism in the Camping and Tramping Countryside 5. Mapping the Geographical Imagination 6. The Family Sailing Story 7. England Expects: The Nelson Tradition and the Politics of Service in Naval Cadet and Family Sailing Stories 8. Conclusion: A Disappearing Act Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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Hazel Sheeky Bird is an independent researcher based in California, USA. She has published on the subject of escapism in Tolkien´s The Hobbit and on the influence of high navalism in British and American naval stories. Her forthcoming publications examine British navalist propaganda and children´s culture between 1890 and 1914.

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