Overview

Arthur Ransome is best known for the twelve immortal Swallows and Amazons books he wrote on his return from Russia in 1928. Ransome led a double, and often tortured, life. Before his fame as an author, he was notorious for very different reasons: between 1917 and 1924, he was the Russian correspondent for the Daily News and the Manchester Guardian, and his sympathy for the Bolshevik regime gave him access to its leaders, politics, and plots. He was friends with Karl Radek, the Bolshevik's Chief of Propaganda, and Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the secret police. In this biography, Chambers explores the tensions Ransome felt between his allegiance to England's decencies and the egalitarian Bolshevik vision, between the Lake Country he loved and always considered home and the lure of the Russian steppes to which he repeatedly returned. What emerges is not only history, but also the story of an immensely troubled man not entirely at home in either culture or country.

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9781567924176

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In this fascinating and thoroughly researched book, Roland Chambers gives us the materials that we need to understand this elusive, adventurous, enigmatic man . . . . -- Stella Rimington, former director-general of MI5 The Times(UK) Chambers's triumph is to chronicle the crucial period of physical, emotional and intellectual exile through which Arthur Ransome finally came home. -- The Guardian The Guardian

Chambers's triumph is to chronicle the crucial period of physical, emotional and intellectual exile through which Arthur Ransome finally came home. -- The Guardian The Guardian

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