The Big Six

The Big Six is the ninth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1940. The book returns Dick and Dorothea Callum, known as the Ds, to the Norfolk Broads where they renew their friendship with the members of the Coot Club. This book is more of a detective story as the Ds and Coot Club try to unravel a mystery that threatens the Death and Glories' freedom to sail the river.

Plot summary

The Ds return to Norfolk, hoping to enjoy a holiday with their friends of the Coot Club. Unfortunately, they find the Death and Glories coming under a gathering cloud of suspicion of setting moored boats adrift.

Everywhere they go, boats seem to be cast adrift; and they are threatened with being forbidden to sail, for fear of their fathers' being disgraced and possibly losing their jobs. [These are the days before employment rights]. Things get worse when new shackles are stolen from a boatbuilder after one of the casting off episodes and some of them are found aboard the Death and Glory. At the same time, the boys seem to be flush with cash, but they won't say where they got it. However, they had accepted a tow from the Cachalot, owned by a keen pike fisherman, and by chance and courage had hooked a colossal fish while the owner was at the local pub. The fisherman swore them to silence about this exploit, but, being an honourable man, had given them the money that the landlord of the pub had promised him, since he had done nothing towards catching the fish.

The Big Six (Ghana)

The Big Six were six leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the leading political party in the British colony of the Gold Coast. They were detained by the colonial authorities in 1948 following disturbances leading to the killing of three World War II veterans. They are pictured on the front of the Ghana cedi notes.

The Big Six

They were:

Background

AWAM boycott

An organized boycott of European imports took place in January 1948. The aim was to get the foreign traders known as the Association of West African Merchants (AWAM) to reduce the prices of their goods. This was followed by a series of riots in early February 1948. The boycotts were scheduled to end on 28 February 1948, a day that has become significant in the history of Ghana. AWAM has become a term synonymous with cheating or profiteering in Ghana.