Most people know of Arthur Ransome, the author of the classic children's
sailing tale, Swallows & Amazons, and many other books in the same
series. But besides his exciting tales of children on the water there is
much more to the man. Before he wrote Swallows & Amazons, Ransome was a
journalist for the Daily News, based in Russia. He is reputed to have
played chess against Lenin and he married Trotsky's secretary. He
cruised extensively in the Baltic in the 1920s on board his beloved
Racundra. His account of his first cruise on that boat was his first
commercially successful book, Racundra's First Cruise (also available
from Fernhurst Books). The second cruise was spoilt by bad weather, but
the third cruise was special - it was his honeymoon having married
Evgenia Shelepina. Ransome clearly intended to publish the account of
this cruise, but never finished it. Ransome enthusiast, Brian Hammett,
got hold of the unpublished manuscript and found Ransome's hand-written
notes, diaries, logbooks and photographs in the Ransome archive at Leeds
University. Brian compiled this book, adding his own notes from his
cruises in the same area. The result is a glorious volume which has
delighted Ransome enthusiasts, sailors and landlubbers equally. This new
paperback edition and eBook will be published on 8th May - the very day
that Ransome and Shelepina got married in 1924 before their honeymoon
cruise which is recounted in this book.
