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The Child's Book of the Seasons
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40 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 9, 2012
13 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Ransome
257 books279 followersArthur Michell Ransome (January 18, 1884 – June 3, 1967) was an English author and journalist. He was educated in Windermere and Rugby.
In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practice writing, producing several minor works before Bohemia in London (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book.
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. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain.
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, before settling down to write Swallows and Amazons and its successors.
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.
In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practice writing, producing several minor works before Bohemia in London (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book.
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. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain.
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, before settling down to write Swallows and Amazons and its successors.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 28, 2022
4.5 stars
I did not think I would finish BingoDOG this year as my library hold did not arrive before Christmas and the library is closed until 4th January.
But then I was reading the final essay in The Simple Act of Reading, where Geordie Williamson talks about reading Swallows and Amazons as a child and he mentions that Arthur Ransome was a journalist for the Manchester Guardian. A quick look on Gutenberg found this lovely book.
I must admit, I love these books from the past about nature. In the essay I mentioned above, Geordie also talks about the changes that have come over childrens' lives and the way they interact with nature. He quotes from Robert Macfarlane's work (and all his nature books are so wonderful) where he says that nine out of ten British children can identify a Dalek, but only three in ten can identify a magpie. And I'm sure there are similar statistics around the world.
So this was a lovely innocent romp through the seasons, filled with haymaking, snowmen and little fairy tales about the seasons.
I did not think I would finish BingoDOG this year as my library hold did not arrive before Christmas and the library is closed until 4th January.
But then I was reading the final essay in The Simple Act of Reading, where Geordie Williamson talks about reading Swallows and Amazons as a child and he mentions that Arthur Ransome was a journalist for the Manchester Guardian. A quick look on Gutenberg found this lovely book.
I must admit, I love these books from the past about nature. In the essay I mentioned above, Geordie also talks about the changes that have come over childrens' lives and the way they interact with nature. He quotes from Robert Macfarlane's work (and all his nature books are so wonderful) where he says that nine out of ten British children can identify a Dalek, but only three in ten can identify a magpie. And I'm sure there are similar statistics around the world.
So this was a lovely innocent romp through the seasons, filled with haymaking, snowmen and little fairy tales about the seasons.
January 17, 2025
Excellent Reading for the Twenty-First Century Child.
🖊 Finally – an intelligent work presenting the four seasons for the education and artful enjoyment of children and adults, too. This was very enjoyable to read, except for all the references to elves and imps throughout.
“And what are the things we know the Summer by? Summer clothes say little girls, and big straw hats say boys.”
📕Published in 1906.
જ⁀🟢 E-book version on Project Gutenberg.
જ⁀🟣 Kindle.
༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻
My ratings for this work:
Plot: ★★★★★
Content: ★★★★★
Grammar: ★★★★★
Writing style: ★★★★★
Character(s): ★★★★★
Ease of reading: ★★★★★
My recommendation: ★★★★★
My total rating for this work: ★★★★★ (5.0)
🖊 Finally – an intelligent work presenting the four seasons for the education and artful enjoyment of children and adults, too. This was very enjoyable to read, except for all the references to elves and imps throughout.
“And what are the things we know the Summer by? Summer clothes say little girls, and big straw hats say boys.”
📕Published in 1906.
જ⁀🟢 E-book version on Project Gutenberg.
જ⁀🟣 Kindle.
༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻
My ratings for this work:
Plot: ★★★★★
Content: ★★★★★
Grammar: ★★★★★
Writing style: ★★★★★
Character(s): ★★★★★
Ease of reading: ★★★★★
My recommendation: ★★★★★
My total rating for this work: ★★★★★ (5.0)
March 22, 2026
A charming book, if not that special. It evokes the seasons in all their splendor, vivid in color and interlocking dance of the vegetable, animal and humankind. Some nicely dark notes such as the cuckoos. The father and children (Ogre, Imp & Elf) were very much priveledged folk visiting the farm hands or pretending to be fleeing from wolves while gathering firewood - an upperclass "let's dabble with the peasants" which was grating, if not honest. Of course the girl likes pretty clothes and the boy wants to play at being a farmer. No serious complaints about dominant discourse, just noting it. ;) I remember my Scotish grandfather styling himself as an ogre so I do find a soft spot for this book. Four evening cuddled by the fire, reading it out loud.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews