His marriage was not a happy one and he did not cope well with that, which did not improve the situation. When he did encounter problems he worried about them and suffered gastric upsets rather than dealing with them. He was enthusiastic about many things and passionate about his enthusiasms, which must have blinded him to potential problems and any negative aspects. Few foreigners managed to make much sense of the chaotic situation in Russia at the time of the revolutions and overthrow of the tsar Ransome managed to do so better than most. He was probably naive and certainly wrong at times, but he was wrong for the right reasons, if that makes sense. This is a fascinating, often chilling revision of an English icon through the most formative decade of the twentieth century. No English journalist was considered more controversial, or more damaging to British security. As the intimate friend of Karl Radek, the Bolshevik Chief of Propaganda, he denied the Red Terror and compared Lenin to Oliver Cromwell. As the Red Army engaged with an Allied invasion of Russia, Ransome was conducting a love affair with Evgenia Shelepina, private secretary to Leon Trotsky, then Soviet Commissar for War. Between 19, as Russian correspondent for the Daily News and Manchester Guardian, he was an uncritical apologist for the Bolshevik regime, with unique access to the revolutionary leaders.

Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, Swallows and Amazons and its sequels described a nostalgic Utopia.Yet before that, Arthur Ransome, famous for different reasons. Rowling is today: author of a series of childrens books which shaped the imagination of a generation.

Arthur Ransome was, in the mid-twentieth century, what J.K.

Arthur ransome autobiography