Books with author Arthur Ransome

The Swallows & Amazons series of children's novels written by Arthur Ransome which follow the adventures of a group of children which occur between the two World Wars. The stories are mainly based around Sailing and are largely set in England although some of the novels do involve journeys to other places.This collection includes all 12 novels which were released as part of the series:Swallows and Amazons (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)

Excerpt:Long before we reach the pond, we hear the quaack, quaack of the ducks, and see them waddling along with their bodies very near the ground by the muddy edges of the water, flopping hurriedly first on one leg and then on the other. When we get near them we can see that as they lift their feet they turn their toes in in a manner that shows they have not been at all properly brought up. But then without warning they throw themselves forward along the water, and swim, looking, suddenly, quite graceful. Everything looks quite graceful in its proper place, and almost everything looks silly when it is anywhere else. Even swans, who are the most beautiful of all birds in the water, look as ungainly as can be when they walk along the ground. And if you put a fish, who swims beautifully in the pool, out on the dry land, he just flops and dies, and that is not a pretty sight at all.

Pigeon Post is an English children's adventure novel by Arthur Ransome, published by Jonathan Cape in 1936. It was the sixth of twelve books Ransome completed in the Swallows and Amazons series (1930 to 1947). He won the inaugural Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising it as the year's best children's book by a British subject.This book is one of the few Swallows and Amazons books that does not feature sailing. All the action takes place on and under the fells surrounding the Lake, as the characters attempt to discover gold in the Lake District hills.

In the eighth book in Arthur Ransome's beloved Swallows and Amazons series, the five Walker children are left on a "desert island" by their parents with provisions for a long stay and a blank map to fill in. Like all of Ransome's books, this is at once a real adventure and a lesson in the practicalities of exploring - in this case, of surveying the inlets, coves, mudflats, and estuaries of "Walker Island." Naturally, there are enemies to overcome (another clan named "The Eels") and friends to meet (who else but the intrepid "Amazons?"). And, as always, the children do it all solo.

John, Susan, Titty and Roger return to the lake for another summer camping on their island with their old allies, Nancy and Peggy, otherwise known as the Amazon pirates. But immediately disaster strikes when the Swallows find themselves marooned ashore by the shipwreck of their boat. But if they can't have the island, there's always Swallowdale, the secret valley, hidden from the world and containing an extra secret concealed within it.

Ransome says in a note at the beginning that the stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other. It was written for English children who play in deep lanes with wild roses above them in the high hedges, or by the small singing becks that dance down the grey fells at home.The tales include "Baba Yaga," the story of the famous witch who lived in a house that walked on chicken feet.Ransome says in his autobiography that the English listeners know nothing of the world that in Russia listeners and storytellers take for granted. So rather than direct translation he read all the variants of the story and rewrote them with Old Peter, Vanya and Maroosia rather than the Ogre, the Elf and the Imp.

Arthur Ransome's classic series!”There was very little room in the Swallow when they had finished loading her at the little jetty by the boathouse. Under the main thwart was a big tin box with the books and writing-paper and other things that had to be kept dry, like nightclothes.”—Arthur RansomeSwallows and Amazons is English author Arthur Ransome's classic children's series about a group of children who go on outdoor adventures during school holidays.

Coot Club is the fifth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1934. The book sees Dick and Dorothea Callum visiting the Norfolk Broads during the Easter holidays, eager to learn to sail and thus impress the Swallows and Amazons when they return to the Lake District later that year. Along with a cast of new characters, Dick and Dorothea explore the North and South Broads and become 'able seamen'.

John, Susan, Titty and Roger return to the lake for another summer camping on their island with their old allies, Nancy and Peggy, otherwise known as the Amazon pirates. But immediately disaster strikes when the Swallows find themselves marooned ashore by the shipwreck of their boat. But if they can't have the island, there's always Swallowdale, the secret valley, hidden from the world and containing an extra secret concealed within it.