Arthur Ransome

As a very small child MF was noisy and demanding and given to tantrums. At two she talked in long sentences . . . and never stopped asking questions and wanting to try to...

DM was a passionate reader as a child, devouring children's adventure books (especially series like W. E. Johns 's Biggles and Arthur Ransome 's Swallows and Amazons), rejecting classical stories like those of Louisa Alcott

FW learned to read at three: I remember . . . the way the letters suddenly made sense. After her grandmother joined the family in 1942 she was able to borrow adult books from...

At this time NH also became acquainted through a mutual friend with the writer Arthur Ransome ; he fondly nicknamed her Ham or Mademoiselle de Jambon. Recounting a night out on the...

The children of Charles Kingsley (whose own The Heroes, re-telling Greek mythological stories, had appeared a year before The Heroes of Asgard), were particularly keen on the Keary Norse collection. A reprint...

Pin Mill (on the river Orwell, almost an appendage of the larger village of Chelmondiston) is proud of its association with this novel, though EAR takes second place in its publicity to We...