That would be Arthur Ransome, author of the Swallows and Amazons series, one of the greatest writers of children’s books ever, and a personal favorite of mine from a very young age (I saved up my allowance and ordered the entire 12-book series, one a month, all the way from Jonathan Cape in England, when …
Tag: Swallows and Amazons
Sailing, sailing
Although I’ve rarely sailed, I’ve been in love with the idea of sailing ever since I was a kid and devoured–several times over–the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ransome. (Used my own money to order them all the way from England–that’s how much I loved them.) Sailboats are expensive and awkward things to own …
I’ve never liked milk in my tea…
…so this doesn’t bother me at all. Reading the Swallows and Amazons books as a kid, the one thing that drove home to me the utter alienness of the culture depicted therein (1920s England) was the putting of milk in tea. Yuck!
Boats
Boats fascinate me. I think it’s because some of my favorite books as a kid were the Swallows and Amazons novels by Arthur Ransome, which are full of boats. So, “Jibbooms and bobstays!”, I said to myself, “Why not write about them?” The one characteristic you really, really want in a boat is the ability …
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