Skip to content Skip to footer
Menu
Search term is required
  • Home
  • What we do Toggle What we do sub-navigation
    • Programmes and campaigns
    • Awards and prizes
    • Children's Laureate
    • Impact and research
    • BookTrust Cymru
    • BookTrust Northern Ireland
  • Books and reading Toggle Books and reading sub-navigation
    • HomeTime
    • Bookfinder
    • Our recommendations
    • Tips and advice
    • Disability and books
  • News and features Toggle News and features sub-navigation
    • News
    • Features
    • Writer in Residence
    • Press
  • About us Toggle About us sub-navigation
    • Governance
    • BookTrust affiliates
    • Work at BookTrust
    • Our strategy
    • Contact us
  • Support us Toggle Support us sub-navigation
    • Become a Friend
    • Do your own fundraising
    • Other ways of making a gift
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Challenge
    • Legacy donations
Donate
Practitioner login
BookTrust logo
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Programmes and campaigns
    • Awards and prizes
    • Children's Laureate
    • Impact and research
    • BookTrust Cymru
    • BookTrust Northern Ireland
  • Books and reading
    • HomeTime
    • Bookfinder
    • Our recommendations
    • Tips and advice
    • Disability and books
  • News and features
    • News
    • Features
    • Writer in Residence
    • Press
  • About us
    • Governance
    • BookTrust affiliates
    • Work at BookTrust
    • Our strategy
    • Contact us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Do your own fundraising
    • Other ways of making a gift
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Challenge
    • Legacy donations
  • Donate
  • Home
  • Authors
  • R
  • Ransome, Arthur
Back to previous page
Author placeholder image

Arthur Ransome

Arthur Michell Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and educated in Windermere and Rugby. His family spent their summers at Nibthwaite, to the south of Coniston Water. In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. 

An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St Petersburg, where he was ideally placed to observe and report on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shvelpina. Ransome married Evgenia and returned to England in 1924. Settling in the Lake District, he spent the late 1920s as a foreign correspondent and highly-respected angling columnist for the Manchester Guardian.

Today Ransome is best known for his Swallows and Amazons series of novels, (1931 – 1947). All remain in print and have been widely translated. Arthur Ransome died in June 1967 and is buried at Rusland in the Lake District.

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube

Keep in touch

020 7801 8800

queries@booktrust.org.uk

  • Contact us
  • Work with us
  • Site map
  • Press
  • Help using this site

Sign up to our newsletters full of updates, activities, ways to support us and fun ideas to inspire children to read.

Sign up
  • Cookies
  • Freedom of information
  • Privacy policy
  • Copyright notice

Charity number 313343

Copyright © 2019 BookTrust, No. 1 Aire Street, Leeds, LS1 4PR

  • Arts Council England
  • Fundraising Regulator
Back to top