Arthur Ransome, storyteller, journalist, sailor, fisherman and suspected spy

Author, Arthur Ransome will be the subject of a talk to be held at the Hastings War Memorial Library of Friday 13 January at 5.30pm. He wrote numerous children’s novels and was surrounded by rumours that he acted as a British spy during the Russian Revolution.

“Many of us remember reading and loving the Swallows and Amazons books as children,” says Cheryl Paget, President of the Arthur Ransome Society of New Zealand. ”However, the talk will show there is more to Arthur Ransome than those novels. He wrote more than twenty-five other books, many related to his own life, experience and interests.”

Cheryl Paget says this presentation will be of interest to anyone who read Swallows and Amazons as a child, or is fascinated by the history of adventure stories for children since the 1930’s.

“If you have ever camped, fished, sailed, been bird spotting, visited the Lake District in England, the Highlands of Scotland or the Norfolk Broads of East Anglia, then this talk will appeal to you.”

Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds, England in 1884 and was educated in Windermere and Rugby. In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practice writing, producing several minor works before writing Bohemia in London (1907), a study of the city’s artistic scene and his first significant book.

An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St Petersburg, where he reported on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shvelpina. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain.

Entry to the talk is free and all are welcome.