Arthur Ransome

Arthur Ransome (January 18, 1884–June 3, 1967) was a British children's author. He is 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 Norfolk Broads areas of England, and mostly involving small sailing boats. They remain popular to the point that they are a basis of a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water — the two lakes that Ransome used as the basis for his fictional lake.

Pre-Swallows and Amazons

Earlier in his life, Ransome was involved in the literary and artistic life of London and wrote "Bohemians in London" about some of the personalities he knew. He married Ivy Constance Walker in 1909 (divorced 1924) and they had one daughter. Among his other books was one on Oscar Wilde which embroiled him in a libel suit with Lord Alfred Douglas. The alleged libel dealt with Wilde and Douglas' homosexual affair and as a result was considered to be 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.

Related Topics:
Bohemians in London - 1909 - 1924 - Oscar Wilde - Alfred Douglas - 1913 - Russia - Folklore

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In 1916, he published Old Peter's Russian Tales, a collection of 21 folktales from Russia. After the start of World War I he became a reporter and covered the war on the Eastern Front for a radical newspaper the Daily News. He also covered the revolutions in 1917 and developed some sympathy for the Bolshevik cause and became personally close to a number of its leaders including Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and met his second wife, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, who was Trotsky's secretary.

Related Topics:
1916 - World War I - 1917 - Bolshevik - Vladimir Lenin - Leon Trotsky

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Although he provided some information to British officials and was considered loyal, if not an agent, by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), MI5, the British Security Service, kept watch on him because of his opposition to the Allied intervention against the Russian revolution. He was searched and interviewed on one of his visits to England and threatened with arrest.

Related Topics:
Secret Intelligence Service - MI5

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By 1937 MI5 eventually concluded he was loyal to Britain. 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 Comintern.

Related Topics:
1937 - KGB - Soviet Union - Comintern

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After the Allied intervention, he 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 Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina and brought her to live in England. Back in England, he continued as a journalist writing for the Guardian, often on foreign affairs and, for the Country Diary column, fishing.

Related Topics:
Manchester Guardian - Country Diary - Fishing

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