Cover of Arthur Ransome's autobiography

Arthur Mitchell Ransome (January 18, 1884 – June 3, 1967), was a British author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, which tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads areas of England. Many of the books involve sailing, with other common subjects including fishing and camping. The books remain popular to the point that they provide a basis of a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water — the two lakes that Ransome used as the basis for his fictional North Country lake. Image File history File linksMetadata Ransome_Autobiography_cover. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Ransome_Autobiography_cover. ... January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Swallows and Amazons is a series of childrens books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Norfolk Broads are the northern part of The Broads National Park. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering animals not classifiable as insects which breathe in water or pass their lives in water. ... Car camping is camping in a tent, but nearby the car for easier access and for supply storage Camping is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the campers get away from civilization and enjoy nature by spending one or more nights at a campsite. ... Windermere from the north. ... Coniston Water as seen from Holme Fell, 3 kilometres to the north. ...

Ransome was born in Leeds, where his father lectured as a Professor of History. His father died in 1897, which had a lasting effect on Ransome who always tried to overcome his belief in his father's lack of confidence in his abilities. Ransome received his formal education first in Windermere and then at Rugby School (where he lived in Lewis Carroll's study room) but did not entirely enjoy the experience - due to his poor vision, lack of athletic skill, and limited academic achievement. He attended Yorkshire College, his father's college, for a year studying chemistry. However, he abandoned the college and went to London to become a writer. He took low-paying jobs as an office assistant in a publishing company and as editor of a failing magazine while writing and becoming a member of the literary scene of London. Statistics Population: 443,247 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SE297338 Administration Metropolitan borough: City of Leeds Metropolitan county: West Yorkshire Region: Yorkshire and the Humber Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: West Yorkshire Historic county: Yorkshire (West Riding) Services Police force: West Yorkshire Police Fire and... HIStory: Past, Present and Future – Book I is a two-disc album by Michael Jackson released in 1995 by the Epic Records division of Sony BMG. The first disc (HIStory Begins) is a fifteen-track greatest hits (later released as Greatest Hits - HIStory Volume I), while the second disc (HIStory... Location within the British Isles. ... A view of Rugby School from The Close, the playing field where according to legend Rugby was invented Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is one of the oldest public schools in England and is perhaps one of the top co-educational boarding schools in the country. ... Lewis Carroll. ... This page is about the British Victoria University. ... Chemistry (from Greek χημεία khemeia[1] meaning alchemy) is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms, such as molecules, crystals, and metals. ...

Before Swallows and Amazons

After Ransome had become involved in the literary and artistic life of London, he wrote Bohemia in London (1907) about some of the personalities he knew. He married Ivy Constance Walker in 1909 (they divorced in 1924) and they had one daughter, Tabitha. Among his other books, one on Oscar Wilde embroiled him in a libel suit with Lord Alfred Douglas. The alleged libel dealt with Wilde and Douglas' homosexual affair and as a result became very scandalous. Ransome's wife's behaviour in attending the trial, and apparently enjoying the notoriety, added to the stress on their marriage. Ransome won the suit, but in 1913 he left his wife and daughter and went to Russia to study folklore. London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, short story writer and Freemason. ... Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (born October 22, 1870; died March 20, 1945) was the third son of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, and the former Sibyl Montgomery. ... Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, material culture, and so forth, common to a particular population, comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group. ...

They sailed away once more over the blue sea.
Frontispiece of an edition of Old Peter's Russian Tales

In 1916 Ransome published Old Peter's Russian Tales, a collection of 21 folktales from Russia. After the start of World War I in 1914 he became a reporter and covered the war on the Eastern Front for a radical newspaper, the Daily News. He also covered the Russian revolutions of 1917, developed some sympathy for the Bolshevik cause and became personally close to a number of its leaders, including Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. He met the woman who would become his second wife, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, who at that time worked as Trotsky's secretary. Image File history File links Frontispiece_of_Old_Peter's_Russian_Tales_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_16981. ... Image File history File links Frontispiece_of_Old_Peter's_Russian_Tales_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_16981. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy Empire of Japan United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson... A television reporter A reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media. ... Combatants German Empire Austria-Hungary Russian Empire Romania Commanders Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff Conrad von Hötzendorf Nikolay II Grand Duke Nicholas Constantin Prezan The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. ... The News Chronicle was a British Liberal newspaper which closed in 1960, being absorbed into the right-wing Daily Mail. ... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the system of autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal Provisional Government (Duma), resulting in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... Bolsheviks (Russian: IPA , derived from bolshinstvo, majority) were members of the Bolshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split apart from the Menshevik faction[1] at the Second Party Congress in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... Lenin redirects here. ... Note: This page is very long. ...

Ransome provided some information to British officials and the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) considered him loyal, if not an agent. MI5, the British Security Service, kept watch on him because of his opposition to the Allied intervention against the Russian revolution. On one of his visits to England the authorities searched and interviewed him and threatened him with arrest. The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the United Kingdoms external intelligence agency. ... Current MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London The Security Service, usually called MI5, is the British counter-intelligence and security agency. ... Britain, France, Canada and the United States, along with other World War I Allied countries, conducted a military intervention into the Russian Civil War during the period of 1918 through 1920. ...

By 1937, MI5 appeared satisfied of Ransome's loyalty to Britain. However, evidence uncovered in the KGB files following the break-up of the Soviet Union seems to indicate that Evgenia Ransome, at least, was involved in smuggling diamonds from the Soviet Union to Paris to help fund the Comintern. The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including...

After the Allied intervention, Ransome remained in the Baltic states and built a cruising yacht Racundra. He wrote a successful book about his experiences, Racundra's First Cruise. He joined the staff of the Manchester Guardian when he returned to Russia and the Baltic states. Following his divorce, he married Shelepina and brought her to live in England, where he continued as a journalist writing for the Guardian, often on foreign affairs and (for the "Country Diary" column) on fishing. The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Country Diary is a daily natural history column in the English newspaper The Guardian, first published in Novermber 1906. ... Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering animals not classifiable as insects which breathe in water or pass their lives in water. ...

The Swallows and Amazons series

Main article: Swallows and Amazons series Swallows and Amazons is a series of childrens books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series. ...

Ransome settled in the Lake District. He decided not to accept a position as a full-time foreign correspondent with the Guardian and instead wrote Swallows and Amazons in 1929 - the first of the series that made his reputation as one of the best English writers of children's books. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Ransome apparently based the Walker children (the "Swallows") in the book in part on the Altounyan family: he had a long-standing friendship with the mother and Collingwood grandparents of the Altounyans. Later he denied the connection, claiming he only gave the Altounyans' names to his own characters; it appears to have upset him that people did not regard the characters as original creations. William Gershom Collingwood, (6 August 1854 - 1 October 1932), was an author, artist, and antiquary. ...

Ransome's writing is noted for his detailed descriptions of activities. Although he used many actual features from the Lake District landscape, he invented his own geography, mixing descriptions of different places to create his own juxtapositions. His move to East Anglia brought forth a change of location for four of the books and Ransome started using the real landscape and geography of East Anglia so that it is possible to use the maps printed in the books as a guide to the real area. Ransome's own interest in sailing and need to provide an accurate description caused him to undertake a voyage across the North Sea to Flushing. His book We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea reflects this, and he based the fictional "Goblin" on his own boat Nancy Blackett (which in turn took its name from a character in the series). Norfolk and Suffolk, the core area of East Anglia. ... Flushing (Dutch Vlissingen) is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. ... Nancy Blackett is a 28 feet long, 7 ton, Bermuda rigged Hillyard sailing cutter built in 1931 and now owned and operated by The Nancy Blackett Trust. ...

Two (or possibly three) of the "Swallows and Amazons" books have less realistic plots. Peter Duck originated as a story purportedly made up by the children themselves, but Ransome dropped the introductory passage clarifying this from the published book (though Peter Duck himself features in Swallowdale as a character whom the children created). Peter Duck comprises a relatively straightforward story, but with a much more fantastic plot than the more conventional "Swallows and Amazons" books.

A trip to China as a foreign correspondent provided Ransome with the imaginative springboard for Missee Lee, a story in which readers find the Swallows and the Amazons sailing around the world in the schooner Wild Cat from Peter Duck. Together with Captain Flint (the Amazons' uncle Jim Turner), they become the captives of Chinese pirates. Two-masted fishing schooner A schooner (IPA: ) is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts. ...

More controversy attaches to the final book of the series, Great Northern?. The plot and action appear realistic, but the internal chronology does not fit the usual run of school holiday adventures. Myles North, an admirer of Ransome, provided much of the basic plot of the book.

The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis was published posthumously in 1976. It only covers his life up to the publication of Peter Duck in 1931. Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis (August 28, 1907 - December 8, 1999) was a British publisher, literary editor, and man of letters, founder of the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. ...

Awards and appreciation

Ransome became the first winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal for children's literature for Pigeon Post in 1936. Durham University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters. Translations of his books have appeared in a number of languages. As a result, Ransome has become very popular in countries such as Japan and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), where thriving Arthur Ransome appreciation societies exist. Recently a Czech astronomer named an asteroid after Ransome (6440 Ransome). A British-based Arthur Ransome Society has a worldwide membership. The Carnegie Medal in Literature was established in the UK in 1936 in honour of Andrew Carnegie. ... Affiliations 1994 Group, European University Association, Association of MBAs, EQUIS, Universities UK, N8 Group, Association of Commonwealth Universities Website http://www. ... An honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum, not to be confused with an honors degree) is an academic degree awarded to an individual as a decoration, rather than as the result of matriculating and studying for several years. ... 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... The Arthur Ransome Society, also known by its acronym TARS, is a society whose goals are to celebrate the life, promote the works, and diffuse the ideas of Arthur Ransome. It is based in the Abbot Hall Museum of Lakeland Life and History in Kendal, England. ...

Ransome and his wife lie buried in the churchyard of St Paul's church, Rusland, in the southern Lake District.

"Swallows and Amazons" bibliography

• Swallows and Amazons (published 1930)
• Swallowdale (1931)
• Peter Duck (1932)
• Winter Holiday (1933)
• Coot Club (1934)
• Pigeon Post (1936)
• We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (1937)
• Secret Water (1939)
• The Big Six (1940)
• Missee Lee (1941)
• The Picts And The Martyrs: Or Not Welcome At All (1943)
• Great Northern? (1947)
• Coots in the North (unfinished at the time of Ransome's 1967 death, published in an unfinished form in 1988 with some other short works)

Swallows and Amazons is a series of childrens books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series. ... See also: 1929 in literature, other events of 1930, 1931 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Typical cover art depicting a montage of Arthur Ransomes own illustrations from the book Swallowdale is the second book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. ... See also: 1930 in literature, other events of 1931, 1932 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Peter Duck is a metafictional book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. ... See also: 1931 in literature, other events of 1932, 1933 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Winter Holiday is the fourth book of Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books. ... See also: 1932 in literature, other events of 1933, 1934 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Coot Club is the fifth book of Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books, published in 1934. ... See also: 1933 in literature, other events of 1934, 1935 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Pigeon Post is the sixth book in Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books. ... See also: 1935 in literature, other events of 1936, 1937 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Typical cover art depicting a montage of Arthur Ransomes own illustrations from the book We Didnt Mean To Go To Sea is the seventh book in Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books. ... See also: 1936 in literature, other events of 1937, 1938 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Secret Water is the eighth book in Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books. ... See also: 1938 in literature, other events of 1939, 1940 in literature, list of years in literature. ... For other usages of the term Big Six, see Big Six. ... See also: 1939 in literature, other events of 1940, 1941 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Missee Lee is the tenth book of Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books, published in 1941. ... See also: 1940 in literature, other events of 1941, 1942 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The Picts and the Martyrs is the eleventh book in Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books. ... See also: 1942 in literature, other events of 1943, 1944 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Typical cover art depicting a montage of Arthur Ransomes own illustrations from the book Great Northern? is the twelfth and final completed book of Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons series of childrens books. ... -1... Coots in the North is the name given by Arthur Ransomes biographer, Hugh Brogan to an incomplete Swallows and Amazons novel found in Ransomes papers. ... See also: 1987 in literature, other events of 1988, 1989 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

References

• The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis, Jonathan Cape, 1976
• The Life of Arthur Ransome, by Hugh Brogan, Jonathan Cape, 1984
• Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk, by Christina Hardyment, Jonathan Cape, 1984

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Arthur Ransome

• The Arthur Ransome Site, a website devoted to Arthur Ransome, including a biography and links to other sites
• Arthur Ransome's Coot Club & the Norfolk Broads
• SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome
• BBC News account of MI5 and Ransome
• Interview with Lenin, on Marxists.org
• Visit Cumbria biography
• Tarboard - an Arthur Ransome discussion-site
• Works by Arthur Ransome at Project Gutenberg
• Krajem Arthura Ransoma Arthur Ransome's country: tourist information in Czech
• The Children's Books of Arthur Ransome, Robert Thompson's pictorial survey of all known editions
• The National Archives, Download copies of the original UK Security Service files on Arthur Ransome