Editing Arthur Ransome (section)

==''Swallows and Amazons'' series==

{{main|Swallows and Amazons series}}

By the late 1920s, Ransome had settled in the [[Lake District]] because he had decided not to accept a position as a full-time foreign correspondent with ''The Guardian'' newspaper. Instead he wrote ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' in 1929 – the first of the series that made his reputation as one of the best English writers of children's books.<ref>{{cite book|last=Strong|first=Leonard|author-link=Leonard Strong (writer)|title=The Writer's Trade|year=1953|publisher=Methuen|location=London|page=133|chapter=Serials: Books for the young reader|oclc=503823758}}</ref><ref>Quoted from {{cite book|last=Walpole|first=Hugh|author-link=Hugh Walpole|title=British Books|volume=139|year=1934|page=248}}</ref>

Ransome apparently based the Walker children (the "Swallows") in the book partly on the Altounyan family. He had a long-standing friendship with the mother of the Altounyans, and their [[W. G. Collingwood|Collingwood]] grandparents. Later, he denied the connection, claiming he simply gave the Altounyans' names to his own characters; it appears to have upset him that people did not regard the characters as original creations. Letters also indicate that conflict arose between Ransome and the family.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-03-09|title=Swallows and Armenians: Arthur Ransome's forgotten inspirations revealed|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/09/swallows-and-armenians-arthur-ransomes-forgotten-inspirations-revealed|access-date=2021-06-06|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

Ransome's writing is noted for his detailed descriptions of activities. Although he used many actual features from the Lake District landscape, he invented his own geography, mixing descriptions of different places to create his own juxtapositions. His move to near [[Pin Mill]] in [[East Anglia]] enabled him to enjoy sailing on the sea and brought a change of location for four of the books. Ransome started using the real landscape and geography of East Anglia, so that one can use the maps printed in the books as a guide to the real area. Ransome's own interest in sailing and his need to provide an accurate description caused him to undertake a voyage across the North Sea to [[Vlissingen|Flushing]] in the Netherlands. His book ''[[We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea]]'' reflects that, and he based the fictional ''Goblin'' on his own boat ''Nancy Blackett'' (which in turn took its name from a [[Nancy Blackett|character in the series]]).

Two or three of the ''Swallows and Amazons'' books have less realistic plots. The original concept of ''[[Peter Duck]]'' was a story made up by the children themselves, and Peter Duck had appeared in the preceding volume, ''[[Swallowdale]]'', as a character whom the children created, but Ransome dropped the foreword of explanation from ''Peter Duck'' before it was published. Although relatively straightforward, the story, together with its equally unrealistic ostensible sequel ''[[Missee Lee]]'',<ref>Wardale (1991:170)</ref> is much more fantastic than the rest of the series. A trip to China as a foreign correspondent provided Ransome with the imaginative springboard for ''Missee Lee'', in which readers find the Swallows and the Amazons sailing around the world in the [[schooner]] ''Wild Cat'' from ''Peter Duck''. Together with Captain Flint (the Amazons' uncle Jim Turner), they become the captives of Chinese pirates.

''Peter Duck'' was illustrated by Ransome himself using pen and ink, although the frontispiece claims that the book is "Based on information supplied by the Swallows and Amazons and illustrated mainly by Themselves."  Ransome then continued to illustrate the stories, and provided illustrations for new editions of the first two books of the series as of 1938, replacing images by [[Clifford Webb]] (whose illustrations for ''Swallows and Amazons'' had themselves replaced [[Steven Spurrier (artist)|Steven Spurrier's]] first edition drawings. Ransome had disliked Spurrier's images and only the maps drawn by Spurrier were retained for the end paper and dust jacket).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hunt|first=Peter|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26301483|title=Approaching Arthur Ransome|date=1992|publisher=Jonathan Cape|isbn=0-224-03288-7|edition=Rev. text|location=London|pages=62|oclc=26301483 }}</ref>

The final book of the series, ''[[Great Northern?]]'' (1947) was set in Scotland, and while the plot and action appear realistic, the internal chronology does not fit the usual run of school holiday adventures. Myles North, an admirer of Ransome, provided much of the basic plot of the book.

''Swallows and Amazons'' was so popular that it inspired a number of other authors to write in a similar vein. Most notably, two schoolchildren, Pamela Whitlock and Katharine Hull, wrote ''[[The Far-Distant Oxus]]'', an adventure story set on [[Exmoor]]. Whitlock sent the manuscript to Ransome in March 1937, and he persuaded his publisher, [[Jonathan Cape]], to produce it, characterising it as "the best children's book of 1937".<ref>Brogan (1984), 353.</ref>