It is an amazing story of a dedicated writer battling against the problems of ill health, a critical and argumentative wife, his own perceived shortcoming and an expectant publisher. Wardale observes how the stories evolved from the point of view of all those who were closely involved - Ransome's publisher, his mother, his wife, his friends and fans - as well as Ransome himself. Using primary written sources, including letters, diary entries and Ransome's own working notes, Roger Wardale expertly pieces together the fascinating story of how the twelve "Swallows & Amazons" books came to be written against the odds. Unhappy with the illustrations produced for the first book, Ransome persuaded the publishers to go to print with none at all, save for the cover image and by book three, he'd taken the decision to do all his own illustrations. Once Ransome had completed the first draft, he would then settle down to write a complete revision and the most difficult chapters were written over and over again. His genius as a storyteller stemmed from an almost infinite capacity for painstaking perfectionism. Ransome once described writing books for children as like reliving the best part of childhood, but this was far from the whole truth. Even today, eighty years after the very first book was published, the series remains as popular and enduring as ever. Arthur Ransome's delightful adventure series of children's books, "Swallows and Amazons", has captured the imagination of children and adults alike ever since they were first published in the 1930s.
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