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The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransom
Arthur Ransome is best known as the author of Swallows and Amazons, the classic children's series that captures of idyllic version of childhood in England. But from 1917 to 1924, he worked in Russia as the correspondent for the Daily News and the Manchester Guardian and held a very different position in the eyes of the British Establishment. A witness to the early days of the Revolution, Ransome gained unique access to its leaders and fell in love with Trotsky's secretary. At the same time, Ransome stayed in close contact with MI6. Soon nobody trusted him. The Last Englishman reveals the secrets of this extraordinary life and asks the question - was Ransome a double agent or an innocent go-between?
390 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
May 23, 2016
I think I rather like Arthur Ransome. He was probably naive and certainly wrong at times, but he was wrong for the right reasons, if that makes sense. 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 enthusiastic about many things and passionate about his enthusiasms, which must have blinded him to potential problems and any negative aspects. When he did encounter problems he worried about them and suffered gastric upsets rather than dealing with them. His marriage was not a happy one and he did not cope well with that, which did not improve the situation. He was carried away by Lenin's and Trotsky's own enthusiasm and conviction that communism was the best solution for Russia, so failed to see the problems there. He had to ask his mother to help him out when he got into difficulties well into adulthood. He always bounced back from whatever setbacks he suffered and worked at his writing with industry and discipline (although he did like his holidays). This all added up to a flawed but very likeable man.
Much of this book is about his early life before he wrote his "Swallows and Amazons" series of children's stories. It was a very interesting life and this is quite a good biography.
If you are only interested in his stories try one of these instead: Arthur Ransome: Master Storyteller. Roger Wardale or In Search of Swallows and Amazons.
If you want a biography but with an emphasis on the stories, try this one: The World of Arthur Ransome. by Christina Hardyment.
P.S. He was not naive. He should have been listened to.
He was enthusiastic about many things and passionate about his enthusiasms, which must have blinded him to potential problems and any negative aspects. When he did encounter problems he worried about them and suffered gastric upsets rather than dealing with them. His marriage was not a happy one and he did not cope well with that, which did not improve the situation. He was carried away by Lenin's and Trotsky's own enthusiasm and conviction that communism was the best solution for Russia, so failed to see the problems there. He had to ask his mother to help him out when he got into difficulties well into adulthood. He always bounced back from whatever setbacks he suffered and worked at his writing with industry and discipline (although he did like his holidays). This all added up to a flawed but very likeable man.
Much of this book is about his early life before he wrote his "Swallows and Amazons" series of children's stories. It was a very interesting life and this is quite a good biography.
If you are only interested in his stories try one of these instead: Arthur Ransome: Master Storyteller. Roger Wardale or In Search of Swallows and Amazons.
If you want a biography but with an emphasis on the stories, try this one: The World of Arthur Ransome. by Christina Hardyment.
P.S. He was not naive. He should have been listened to.
January 10, 2026
Arthur Ransome was quite a character and well worth reading about, I enjoyed The last englishman, what a life that man lived. Who’d imagine that the author of The Swallows and the Amazons was part of the Russian revolution
July 16, 2012
This was an interesting read, but overall a little disappointing since it only contained two short chapters about the conception and writing of Swallows and Amazons. The rest was standard biography. When I first learned that Ransome had worked for MI6 during and after WWI it seemed dashing and mysterious, but in fact it appears that he was fundamentally someone who looked after his own interests, and that in addition to being an apologist for the Bolsheviks he smuggled money out of Russia for them (3 million rubles, at one point), married Trotsky's secretary, and treated his daughter by his first wife very badly. He had a fascinating journalistic career, but not a particularly laudable one, and this book spends A LOT of time tracing the byzantine threads of party affiliations post-revolution--Ransome is in Russia suffering from "piiles" for MANY pages. I would have like a little less revolution and a little more sailing, but maybe that's because it's summertime and this is not a beach read.
March 11, 2016
For the most part, a workmanlike biography of, admittedly, a complicated man. But near the end there's this wonderful paragraph:
"The Great War, famously billed as 'the war to end all wars,' was directly responsible for a greater number of future conflicts than any previous war in history. The Treaty of Versailles, intended to create a lasting peace in Europe, paved the way for Adolf Hitler. The extreme political ideologies of the post-war era, fascism and communism, gained their power to convince on the Western and Eastern Fronts. The first stones of the Cold War were laid in 1917, when Lenin disposed of Russia's fledgling democracy on the promise of 'Land, Peace and Bread,' while the post-Soviet collision between Western capital and fundamentalist Islam was seeded in the ham-fisted division of the Middle East at the Quai d'Orsay. Eight and a half-million soldiers lost their lives in the war; over 30 million--half the total mobilized--were wounded. For those who had lived through the catastrophe, much of the complaisance of the old world had been irretrievably shattered. There was before and there was after, and in-between, a collective trauma which marked the beginning of the modern age. Once of the recurring questions arising from this trauma was why the war had been fought at all: how an assassin's bullet in Sarajevo could have caused so much damage, how so much damage could have been *permitted.* Another was how the past should now be viewed. What lessons could be learned by looking back? What was the meaning of the past at all?"
There's so much I love about that paragraph--not a lot of brand new information or insight, but all brought together in one place and wonderfully phrased.
Ransome himself reminds me of the line in Have His Carcase about how the meek and mild are always the ones who go for Bolshevism and revolution. He was a weedy, sickly, pile-suffering essentially conservative Edwardian Englishman who nonetheless became friends with some of the major figures in the Bolshevik revolution and its aftermath. He married Trotsky's secretary (as well as being her lover for many years before he was able to get a divorce from his first wife--also not what you'd expect of a conservative Englishman of his time). To what extent he was a fan of/believer in Bolshevism and to what extent he was just doing his job--as either a journalist or possibly a British agent--is impossible to determine, at least on the strength of the evidence here.
On the whole, however, I found him to be a somewhat unsympathetic man, regardless of his political views. He certainly seems to have been an opportunist, a little bit of a whiner, not very competent in many ways, and not very self aware. He handled his relationship with his daughter (admittedly, a tricky situation because of his relationship with his first wife) poorly and ended up completely estranged from her. He fought with his great good friends, whose children inspired Swallows and Amazons. And after all the horror and bloodshed and revolution he witnessed, was content to live complacently in the Lake District at the end of the day, sailing and fishing and not giving a toss about anyone else, it would seem. Also, the relationship with his second wife is a little problematic. She apparently had a tremendous temper, but this doesn't seem to have bothered him at all. And though we don't know a lot about what didn't work in his first marriage, it seems a little odd to me that the success of the two was so widely different, when the women seem to have had some similarity in their characters.
"The Great War, famously billed as 'the war to end all wars,' was directly responsible for a greater number of future conflicts than any previous war in history. The Treaty of Versailles, intended to create a lasting peace in Europe, paved the way for Adolf Hitler. The extreme political ideologies of the post-war era, fascism and communism, gained their power to convince on the Western and Eastern Fronts. The first stones of the Cold War were laid in 1917, when Lenin disposed of Russia's fledgling democracy on the promise of 'Land, Peace and Bread,' while the post-Soviet collision between Western capital and fundamentalist Islam was seeded in the ham-fisted division of the Middle East at the Quai d'Orsay. Eight and a half-million soldiers lost their lives in the war; over 30 million--half the total mobilized--were wounded. For those who had lived through the catastrophe, much of the complaisance of the old world had been irretrievably shattered. There was before and there was after, and in-between, a collective trauma which marked the beginning of the modern age. Once of the recurring questions arising from this trauma was why the war had been fought at all: how an assassin's bullet in Sarajevo could have caused so much damage, how so much damage could have been *permitted.* Another was how the past should now be viewed. What lessons could be learned by looking back? What was the meaning of the past at all?"
There's so much I love about that paragraph--not a lot of brand new information or insight, but all brought together in one place and wonderfully phrased.
Ransome himself reminds me of the line in Have His Carcase about how the meek and mild are always the ones who go for Bolshevism and revolution. He was a weedy, sickly, pile-suffering essentially conservative Edwardian Englishman who nonetheless became friends with some of the major figures in the Bolshevik revolution and its aftermath. He married Trotsky's secretary (as well as being her lover for many years before he was able to get a divorce from his first wife--also not what you'd expect of a conservative Englishman of his time). To what extent he was a fan of/believer in Bolshevism and to what extent he was just doing his job--as either a journalist or possibly a British agent--is impossible to determine, at least on the strength of the evidence here.
On the whole, however, I found him to be a somewhat unsympathetic man, regardless of his political views. He certainly seems to have been an opportunist, a little bit of a whiner, not very competent in many ways, and not very self aware. He handled his relationship with his daughter (admittedly, a tricky situation because of his relationship with his first wife) poorly and ended up completely estranged from her. He fought with his great good friends, whose children inspired Swallows and Amazons. And after all the horror and bloodshed and revolution he witnessed, was content to live complacently in the Lake District at the end of the day, sailing and fishing and not giving a toss about anyone else, it would seem. Also, the relationship with his second wife is a little problematic. She apparently had a tremendous temper, but this doesn't seem to have bothered him at all. And though we don't know a lot about what didn't work in his first marriage, it seems a little odd to me that the success of the two was so widely different, when the women seem to have had some similarity in their characters.
August 24, 2012
All I knew about Arthur Ransome before reading this book was that he was the author of SWALLOWS & AMAZONS, the first in a series of books that (unlike many of my contemporaries) I managed to avoid reading when I was a child. I had no idea that he had been a journalist, secret agent, and confidante of Lenin and Trotsky during the Russian Revolution and had been eyewitness to the turmoil that preceded and followed. THE LAST ENGLISHMAN is well-written and painstakingly researched. The reason it only merits three stars is that I'm not sure the subject of the biography deserved so detailed a work: in fact, it's length only points up how minor a figure Ransome seems in the end. Chambers doesn't disguise the fact that Ransome was at times a fellow traveller, willfully naive, and somewhat two-faced as he navigated the very complicated and turbulent waters of Europe during the second half of the second decade of the twentieth century. Frankly, Ransome comes across as self-absorbed, at times almost perversely so; however, his genius for self-preservation and for emerging from the conflict with his reputation still intact is something to behold. I'm not sure the biography compels me to read any of his work; but I did learn more about the Revolution and some of the geopolitical struggle that took place beyond the Western Front.
October 19, 2016
Ransom is presented as a fairly simple man who simply wants to sail and fish. Almost against his will he gets thrust into a world of revolution and espionage. Even marrying Trotsky's secretary.
I had never heard of Arthur Ransome or of Swallows and Amazons before I discovered this book. I heard about Ransom from reading about Bruce Lockhart, the spy. Others have read this book and been disappointed that it covers to much of Russian politics and speculation over whether Ransome was a double agent. For me as a fan of non-fiction and Russia it was a brilliant book.
I had never heard of Arthur Ransome or of Swallows and Amazons before I discovered this book. I heard about Ransom from reading about Bruce Lockhart, the spy. Others have read this book and been disappointed that it covers to much of Russian politics and speculation over whether Ransome was a double agent. For me as a fan of non-fiction and Russia it was a brilliant book.
September 23, 2024
This is a biography of Arthur Ransome, the famous and respected author of Swallows and Amazons, a book that resonates in the hearts of so many British children and former children who grew up reading it and others like it. Ransome wrote several books about children messing about in boats, camping and generally having a ‘jolly good time’, and his place in literary history is so solid as to lend him an aura in the vein of Captain W.E. Johns (of Biggles fame) and Enid Blyton (The Famous Five).
Don’t expect this biography to be a boring list of his achievements and how much he was loved, however: far from it. In fact, his fame as a children’s author came later in life, delayed by Ransome becoming a journalist, almost accidentally. He travelled on the Continent a good deal to gather folk tales he could collate into a children’s book or re-work into fairy stories of his own, and journalism gave him the funds to be able to do it. Of course, it is a busy job and editors don’t pay expenses unless they receive good copy, so he was always too busy to write for himself in any meaningful way.
What he did was to live mainly in Russia, where he reported on the political situation, i.e. the Tsar’s government and the Bolsheviks. This was during the First World War, and Britain and France were desperate for Russia to stay in the war because if they unilaterally made peace with Germany, the Germans would have many more divisions to send from the Eastern to the Western Front, which would be a disaster. Lenin’s speeches suggested that if there was a revolution, Russia would stop fighting the Germans and begin a ‘class war’ instead.
Ransome met Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, and also worked for a Bolshevik newspaper at the same time as a British one. He was in touch with the British Embassy and MI6, who were keen for him to gather any insider knowledge, i.e. intelligence, on the Bolsheviks and their plans. Ransome had to walk a tightrope, publishing articles in line with the Bolsheviks’ party line in their paper while sending more balanced articles to his English paper and passing information to the British authorities – all without offending anyone. It was said that no-one in Russia or anywhere else knew more about the Bolsheviks than Ransome, so he was a vital player in the political machinations going on at that time. The problem was that he embraced his work with such conscientiousness, including socialising with some of the Bolsheviks, that he was considered suspect by MI6 and the Foreign Office, and possibly a double-agent, something to which we will never really know the answer.
Ransome’s personal life was a mess; his marriage broke down but the couple remained married for years afterwards. This also entailed him seriously neglecting his daughter, whom he hardly ever saw. He began an affair with a woman prominent in the Party who was totally committed to the Revolution, and who, eventually, he was able to marry. He became extremely stressed with all the angst, the work, travel and pressure, as well as suspicion from both sides, and he really just wanted to write children’s stories the whole time, which he didn’t have time to do. It all worked out in the end, of course, but he paid a price.
This is a very well-researched and -written biography of a complex man, which I thoroughly recommend. Roland Chambers does no whitewashing – Ransome is presented warts and all, and the book is better for that. This is Mr Chambers’ first biography, and he has done a cracking job.
Don’t expect this biography to be a boring list of his achievements and how much he was loved, however: far from it. In fact, his fame as a children’s author came later in life, delayed by Ransome becoming a journalist, almost accidentally. He travelled on the Continent a good deal to gather folk tales he could collate into a children’s book or re-work into fairy stories of his own, and journalism gave him the funds to be able to do it. Of course, it is a busy job and editors don’t pay expenses unless they receive good copy, so he was always too busy to write for himself in any meaningful way.
What he did was to live mainly in Russia, where he reported on the political situation, i.e. the Tsar’s government and the Bolsheviks. This was during the First World War, and Britain and France were desperate for Russia to stay in the war because if they unilaterally made peace with Germany, the Germans would have many more divisions to send from the Eastern to the Western Front, which would be a disaster. Lenin’s speeches suggested that if there was a revolution, Russia would stop fighting the Germans and begin a ‘class war’ instead.
Ransome met Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, and also worked for a Bolshevik newspaper at the same time as a British one. He was in touch with the British Embassy and MI6, who were keen for him to gather any insider knowledge, i.e. intelligence, on the Bolsheviks and their plans. Ransome had to walk a tightrope, publishing articles in line with the Bolsheviks’ party line in their paper while sending more balanced articles to his English paper and passing information to the British authorities – all without offending anyone. It was said that no-one in Russia or anywhere else knew more about the Bolsheviks than Ransome, so he was a vital player in the political machinations going on at that time. The problem was that he embraced his work with such conscientiousness, including socialising with some of the Bolsheviks, that he was considered suspect by MI6 and the Foreign Office, and possibly a double-agent, something to which we will never really know the answer.
Ransome’s personal life was a mess; his marriage broke down but the couple remained married for years afterwards. This also entailed him seriously neglecting his daughter, whom he hardly ever saw. He began an affair with a woman prominent in the Party who was totally committed to the Revolution, and who, eventually, he was able to marry. He became extremely stressed with all the angst, the work, travel and pressure, as well as suspicion from both sides, and he really just wanted to write children’s stories the whole time, which he didn’t have time to do. It all worked out in the end, of course, but he paid a price.
This is a very well-researched and -written biography of a complex man, which I thoroughly recommend. Roland Chambers does no whitewashing – Ransome is presented warts and all, and the book is better for that. This is Mr Chambers’ first biography, and he has done a cracking job.
February 20, 2013
What a book! And what an unpromising subject. I've never read the Swallows and Amazons books. I did once try, but too late in life to for such stuff to fire my imagination, so I gave it up; and Chambers' biography hasn't changed my attitude to them.
The main case against Ransome can be stated in one word: Bolshevism. And in the light of history, it is hard to condone his propaganda work or his closeness to so many with blood on their hands. He is the very type of Stalin's "useful idiots". Some biographers become so disenchanted with their subject that they find it difficult to continue. Ransome is potentiallly that sort of subject, but Roland Chambers appears not to have suffered in this way: from the 3rd chapter on, when Ransome arrives in London as a young man, the story flows along and becomes completely engrossing.
How many people know that Ransome wrote the first critical biography of Oscar Wilde to appear after the playwrights death? and became embroiled in a libel suit brought by Lord Alfred Douglas (at considerable emotional cost, though it went against Douglas in the end)? When it was all over in 1913, Ransome went to Russia to escape from Ivy, his first wife (he was ever an escapist!), and began learning Russian. On the eve of the Csar's fall he translated Russian fairy tales and wrote a guide to St Petersburg. Anybody who has lived as an expat will have known somebody like Ransome, the convivial expat who seems to know everything that is happening and everybody making things happen. He was bound to be recruited as a journalist eventually, and so eventually he was; and later recruited by MI6 as well. His career in Russia gives the lie to the adage, attributed to one Jesus Christ, that you cannot serve two masters: Ransome served both masters very well - providing well-informed, if biased, counsel to the Allies and much very effective propaganda for the Bolsheviks.
Ransome does have, balanced against his self-serving political allegiances, a few appealing qualities to claim our sympathy: conviviality, a demonic capacity for hard work, his simple English tastes, his devotion to his second wife Evgenia, and (grudging admiration) the sheer the chutzpah with which he managed to extract himself and Evgenia from Russia and eventually win respectability (CBE, honorary doctorate and even membership of the Royal Cruising Club) in England where he had once been called a traitor.
In the final chapter I learned a most intriguing fact - a possible personal connection to Ransome. With the popular success of his books, he was able to indulge his passion for boats and in his later years owned a succession of them, the last two of which were called Lottie Blossom. Ransome died in 1965, after years of illness. In 1960 and possibly 1959 too, a yacht called Lottie Blossom was leased by my uncle Michael and aunt Carol, and I spent several weekends sailing with them off the coast of Essex in the summer of 1960. Could it have been one of those two Lottie Blossoms? The pictures I have seen on the internet are very like the yacht I remember. I like to think so.
The main case against Ransome can be stated in one word: Bolshevism. And in the light of history, it is hard to condone his propaganda work or his closeness to so many with blood on their hands. He is the very type of Stalin's "useful idiots". Some biographers become so disenchanted with their subject that they find it difficult to continue. Ransome is potentiallly that sort of subject, but Roland Chambers appears not to have suffered in this way: from the 3rd chapter on, when Ransome arrives in London as a young man, the story flows along and becomes completely engrossing.
How many people know that Ransome wrote the first critical biography of Oscar Wilde to appear after the playwrights death? and became embroiled in a libel suit brought by Lord Alfred Douglas (at considerable emotional cost, though it went against Douglas in the end)? When it was all over in 1913, Ransome went to Russia to escape from Ivy, his first wife (he was ever an escapist!), and began learning Russian. On the eve of the Csar's fall he translated Russian fairy tales and wrote a guide to St Petersburg. Anybody who has lived as an expat will have known somebody like Ransome, the convivial expat who seems to know everything that is happening and everybody making things happen. He was bound to be recruited as a journalist eventually, and so eventually he was; and later recruited by MI6 as well. His career in Russia gives the lie to the adage, attributed to one Jesus Christ, that you cannot serve two masters: Ransome served both masters very well - providing well-informed, if biased, counsel to the Allies and much very effective propaganda for the Bolsheviks.
Ransome does have, balanced against his self-serving political allegiances, a few appealing qualities to claim our sympathy: conviviality, a demonic capacity for hard work, his simple English tastes, his devotion to his second wife Evgenia, and (grudging admiration) the sheer the chutzpah with which he managed to extract himself and Evgenia from Russia and eventually win respectability (CBE, honorary doctorate and even membership of the Royal Cruising Club) in England where he had once been called a traitor.
In the final chapter I learned a most intriguing fact - a possible personal connection to Ransome. With the popular success of his books, he was able to indulge his passion for boats and in his later years owned a succession of them, the last two of which were called Lottie Blossom. Ransome died in 1965, after years of illness. In 1960 and possibly 1959 too, a yacht called Lottie Blossom was leased by my uncle Michael and aunt Carol, and I spent several weekends sailing with them off the coast of Essex in the summer of 1960. Could it have been one of those two Lottie Blossoms? The pictures I have seen on the internet are very like the yacht I remember. I like to think so.
March 4, 2017
Chambers breaks the golden rule of biographers - it helps if you actually like the subject of your book. Plainly he dislikes Ransome, and it shows.
Arthur Ransome's life had three distinct phases: early on he was a confident and rather charming member of "Bohemian London", living very simply, sometimes in real poverty, and knocking about with some of the literary giants of that time. Although much of what he wrote at that time was pretty second-rate, his biography of Wilde was a success, In his second incarnation, he was a much-travelled professional journalist with access to all the main figures in the Russian revolution. His writing on the subject obviously reflected his own conflicted stance. I'm afraid the term "useful idiot" comes to mind, even if it is a bit unfair. Finally, he was the author of a series of children's novels, deservedly still in print. Ransome's literary inventions in these works are subtle and are only now getting the critical attention they deserve. Chambers deals only with the middle (Russian) part of his life in any detail - something already covered at length in Ransome's autobiography and in Hugh Brogan's "Life". The MI6/spy twist had been hinted at for many years and really doesn't amount to much new.
For a more balanced (and more readable) telling of the same story I recommend Marcus Sedgwick's "Blood Red Snow White." In that book, Ransome is (correctly im my view) shown as having to chose between wife or daughter - something he agonised about for the rest of his life.
Arthur Ransome's life had three distinct phases: early on he was a confident and rather charming member of "Bohemian London", living very simply, sometimes in real poverty, and knocking about with some of the literary giants of that time. Although much of what he wrote at that time was pretty second-rate, his biography of Wilde was a success, In his second incarnation, he was a much-travelled professional journalist with access to all the main figures in the Russian revolution. His writing on the subject obviously reflected his own conflicted stance. I'm afraid the term "useful idiot" comes to mind, even if it is a bit unfair. Finally, he was the author of a series of children's novels, deservedly still in print. Ransome's literary inventions in these works are subtle and are only now getting the critical attention they deserve. Chambers deals only with the middle (Russian) part of his life in any detail - something already covered at length in Ransome's autobiography and in Hugh Brogan's "Life". The MI6/spy twist had been hinted at for many years and really doesn't amount to much new.
For a more balanced (and more readable) telling of the same story I recommend Marcus Sedgwick's "Blood Red Snow White." In that book, Ransome is (correctly im my view) shown as having to chose between wife or daughter - something he agonised about for the rest of his life.
January 6, 2013
Like most people, I only really knew Arthur Ransome as the author of the Swallows & Amazons series. However, those books do not feature very prominently in this biography; they were written relatively late in the life of Ransome, who spent a long time working as a journalist in Russia during the First World War and the Russian Revolution. This isn't a period of history I know much about, so it was very interesting to read about it from the perspective of a single journalist (who was apparently very well-connected and ended up marrying Trotsky's secretary), but in places the book seemed to assume more knowledge of Russia's involvement in WWI than I actually have - although I suppose that's my own failing rather than the book's.
December 21, 2013
I bought this book in the Lake District this summer as a topical biography about someone who wrote the books on which one of my favourite childhood TV seriess was based. What an eye opener. Finally I understand the Russian Revolution and that is not something I expected when I started reading it. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Russia at the end of World War One as it really does set out the events in a chronological and understandable manner. Arthur Ransome comes across as a likeable, somewhat naive character and as someone with a strong sense of what is right and how things should be done. His Edwardian origins shining through no doubt.
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July 20, 2010Great book. Almost unbelievable that the Swallows and Amazons author was either a naive journalist who didn't understand what was going on in Russian at the time of the Russian revolution or else was a canny double agent.
August 24, 2011
I was interested to read about Arthur Ransome, having devoured the Swallows and Amazons books as a girl. But, I didn't like the fellow when I read this book and rather wish I hadn't read it actually!
Amazing life experiences, but oh so selfish.
Amazing life experiences, but oh so selfish.
January 24, 2022
I am truly flabbergasted by Arthur Ransome’s life. How can this all be true?
If you are: a student of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, a lover of Russia, a bibliophile of children’s lit, have an interest in folk tales, love the Lake District of England, or are into espionage… this book will amaze you!
The author did a good job of piecing together the events of Ransome’s life, as he crisscrossed countries and political theories/systems. It is obvious that he had very little personal regard for Ransome’s character. His tone is frequently condescending. Maybe it is deserved, the author did read much of Ransome’s personal letters and many descriptions of his person by personal and political acquaintances.
This biography cries out to be a movie. I’m surprised one hasn’t been made yet. Maybe it is all too unbelievable- maybe the budget for such a gigantic life would prohibit film-making.
Flabbergasted!
If you are: a student of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, a lover of Russia, a bibliophile of children’s lit, have an interest in folk tales, love the Lake District of England, or are into espionage… this book will amaze you!
The author did a good job of piecing together the events of Ransome’s life, as he crisscrossed countries and political theories/systems. It is obvious that he had very little personal regard for Ransome’s character. His tone is frequently condescending. Maybe it is deserved, the author did read much of Ransome’s personal letters and many descriptions of his person by personal and political acquaintances.
This biography cries out to be a movie. I’m surprised one hasn’t been made yet. Maybe it is all too unbelievable- maybe the budget for such a gigantic life would prohibit film-making.
Flabbergasted!
February 9, 2022
Wonderfully well written account of the life of a fascinating and passionate man. His exploits in Communist Russia are a welcome eccentricity, and, to my mind sits well with the character of Captain Flint, whose mysteries past and extensive travels are all hinted at in his excellent children’s books, mostly set in the Lakes.
As someone who read none or ten of these twelve novels, I was riveted by Chambers’ beautifully-judged analysis of their authors’ breathtaking life. To reveal much more would be greatly unfair to anyone who wished to read it and read this beforehand, so all I will say is this: anyone who read and loved Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, The Picts and the Martyrs et al will also love this rollicking, well-crafted tale which has you cheering along with this brave and determined man’s life (though he was by no means perfect - well, none of us are…)
As someone who read none or ten of these twelve novels, I was riveted by Chambers’ beautifully-judged analysis of their authors’ breathtaking life. To reveal much more would be greatly unfair to anyone who wished to read it and read this beforehand, so all I will say is this: anyone who read and loved Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, The Picts and the Martyrs et al will also love this rollicking, well-crafted tale which has you cheering along with this brave and determined man’s life (though he was by no means perfect - well, none of us are…)
February 19, 2018
I found the information about Arthur Ransome in this book intriguing - a self-centered and idiosyncratic Englishman who lived part of his life at the heart of the Russian revolution. Unfortunately, for me the people and politics of the Russian revolution overpowers the biography of Ransome himself, and I got bogged down and confused by who was with which faction and how they were interacting with other factions. I'm glad I read the book to the end, to reach the era when Arthur Ransome returned to England and wrote the Swallows and Amazons series; I also learned a fair bit about the Russian revolution, which I knew essentially nothing about before; but it was not an easy read.
November 4, 2019
Great insight to Ransome's life including his personal relationships, family, and writing both as a foreign correspondent and a children's author. Be prepared for a lot of Russian history since he spent many years reporting on the Bolshevik revolution. The book also contains many excerpts of letters to his mother, his friends, his ex-wife and his daughter.
There are many close calls when Ransome's life could have taken a tragic turn and he might have been remembered as a third rate spy for one side or the other. Somehow he escape these close calls and retired to the Lake District to write those wonderful children's adventures for which he is best remembered.
There are many close calls when Ransome's life could have taken a tragic turn and he might have been remembered as a third rate spy for one side or the other. Somehow he escape these close calls and retired to the Lake District to write those wonderful children's adventures for which he is best remembered.
December 8, 2021
This is a biography of the author of the beloved Swallows and Amazons children's books which I am currently re-reading. It focuses on his time as a journalist and sometime spy during the Russian Revolution. Certainly more enoyable if you know the books but it is also a great portrait of a journalist covering a story he does not really understand. Even though he is at heart an Edwardian romantic he gets the Bolshevik bug and becomes their mouthpiece to the west. He is then recruited by spies on both sides. Brings together Soviet and British archives. Also gives a great insight into how the books reflect his own strained attitude to his daughter whom he abandoned to go off adventuring.
February 19, 2017
I should have enjoyed this much more than I did, combining as it does Arthur Ransome and Russian history. And I was interested in the detail of ARs life in Russia, and Genia's family background (although I gather Chambers has found little new). In the end though it feels like a failed hatchet job, and a search for sensation that isn't there. Was AR a spy, and who for? Well, as it turns out, he wasn't, although MI6 used him as an informant, neither they nor the Bolsheviks ever entrusted him with anything significant, and he never indulged in any sort of espionage. Big whoop.
March 30, 2022
Interesting but ultimately unsatisfying life of Arthur Ransome. The complexity of his life in Russia was well done but his later career as a children's author was polished off in about a chapter.
June 13, 2015
The Last Englishman: the double life of Arthur Ransome (928.2 R212C 2012) by Roland Chambers is a biography of one of the British Empire’s favorite children’s authors, Arthur Ransome. Best known for his Swallows & Amazons series, first published in 1930 and extending to some 12 titles by 1947, the books feature adventures by groups of children almost all during the school holidays and mostly in England and Scotland, between the two World Wars. The stories revolve around outdoor activities, especially sailing. The series affected a whole generation's view of holidays, helped to create the national image of the English Lake District and added Ransome's name to the select list of classic British children's authors
It’s somewhat unlikely then, that one would consider a beloved children’s author to have a ‘double life’! Chambers makes his case, exploring Ransome’s journalist years in pre and post- revolutionary Russia. For in addition to his enduring fame as a children’s writer, Ransome was the foremost expert on Russia during World War 1. There’s considerable debate about Ransome’s revolutionary leanings, and the fact that he eventually married Trotsky’s secretary adds to this complex man’s story. Whether or not Ransome had mixed loyalties, Chambers does draw a detailed story of Ransome’s life and that of England and Russia in the early 20th century. A fascinating read. Ransome remains popular today as evidenced by the British-based group, The Arthur Ransome Society, http://www.arthur-ransome.org/, which has an international membership.
It’s somewhat unlikely then, that one would consider a beloved children’s author to have a ‘double life’! Chambers makes his case, exploring Ransome’s journalist years in pre and post- revolutionary Russia. For in addition to his enduring fame as a children’s writer, Ransome was the foremost expert on Russia during World War 1. There’s considerable debate about Ransome’s revolutionary leanings, and the fact that he eventually married Trotsky’s secretary adds to this complex man’s story. Whether or not Ransome had mixed loyalties, Chambers does draw a detailed story of Ransome’s life and that of England and Russia in the early 20th century. A fascinating read. Ransome remains popular today as evidenced by the British-based group, The Arthur Ransome Society, http://www.arthur-ransome.org/, which has an international membership.
October 17, 2014
This is a fascinating book! I was a big fan of Swallows and Amazons as a child. I first discovered Ransome had spent time in Russia when I found one of his books on the Gutenberg project website, but I had no idea that he was that close to all the key figures in the Russian revolution. He went to Russia to escape an unhappy marriage and was quite content to continue his Bohemian life in Petrograd until the revolution broke out and ignited a spark in him too.
The author suggests Ransome had an inferiority complex and that his joy at the Bolsheviks' victory was the underdog's joy at finally beating the natural winner. And of course, Ransome fell in love with Trotsky's secretary, binding him to the Bolshevik cause in a more personal way. Yet it still puzzles me that he never spoke out against the terror committed in the name of the revolution, arguing in fact that it was inevitable to ensure stability in Russia. It seems to me that he was a rather selfish and naive man, whose actions served to inflate his self-importance. This would explain the emotional shallowness of the Swallows and Amazons books. They are fun, good clean adventure stories, written by a man who may have felt like the main character in a real-life boys' own adventure.
The author suggests Ransome had an inferiority complex and that his joy at the Bolsheviks' victory was the underdog's joy at finally beating the natural winner. And of course, Ransome fell in love with Trotsky's secretary, binding him to the Bolshevik cause in a more personal way. Yet it still puzzles me that he never spoke out against the terror committed in the name of the revolution, arguing in fact that it was inevitable to ensure stability in Russia. It seems to me that he was a rather selfish and naive man, whose actions served to inflate his self-importance. This would explain the emotional shallowness of the Swallows and Amazons books. They are fun, good clean adventure stories, written by a man who may have felt like the main character in a real-life boys' own adventure.
November 29, 2016
The second decade of the Twentieth Century, the decade that gave us the First World War and the Russian Revolution(s) has to be one of the most surreal and grotesque periods in human history. Ransome, as a young man, was in the thick of the weird, so, perhaps it's understandable that he was a bit of weird one himself. He was obviously very charming, and he obviously had some chops as a writer, but he just as obviously had a wonky moral compass and a huge capacity for self-deception that allowed him play — turn and turn about — the English gentleman, the bohemian man of letters and the champion of the proletariat, the pampered decadent and buddy of tyrants without any qualms.
The Russian section (most of the book) would have benefited a dramatis personae to help the reader keep track of the huge cast of characters. Even that would not have unmuddled the political garbage heap that was European politics in that era.
Thankfully, Ransome came home to England eventually began to look to the simpler pleasures of friends, fishing and sailing as an inspiration for his books.
This was book #22 on our 2016 Read-aloud list.
The Russian section (most of the book) would have benefited a dramatis personae to help the reader keep track of the huge cast of characters. Even that would not have unmuddled the political garbage heap that was European politics in that era.
Thankfully, Ransome came home to England eventually began to look to the simpler pleasures of friends, fishing and sailing as an inspiration for his books.
This was book #22 on our 2016 Read-aloud list.
February 14, 2011
Really, this gets three stars from me only because I'm not very good at reading non-fiction: it doesn't allow me to day-dream enough and demands too much brain-power. So I don't have a strong sense of having enjoyed the book, though the descriptions of Lenin were enlightening: all the passages about Russia were fantastic.
Wellington's local Ransome expert believes Chambers's claims of double-agentry are overdone, and he (the expert) knows his stuff. I wanted more about Ransome's family life, and the writing of S&A etc, each of which have been read out loud at least twice in our house to the accompaniment of shouts and exhortations much as if the audience were at a pantomime. But what also made a great impression on me was Ransome's writing work ethic, and how much he had written before he began the S&A series, which may account for the wonderful readability of his sentences.
Wellington's local Ransome expert believes Chambers's claims of double-agentry are overdone, and he (the expert) knows his stuff. I wanted more about Ransome's family life, and the writing of S&A etc, each of which have been read out loud at least twice in our house to the accompaniment of shouts and exhortations much as if the audience were at a pantomime. But what also made a great impression on me was Ransome's writing work ethic, and how much he had written before he began the S&A series, which may account for the wonderful readability of his sentences.
November 9, 2012
"In this fascinating and thoroughly researched book, Roland Chambers gives us the materials that we need to understand this elusive, adventurous, enigmatic man...."
- The Times (UK), Stella Rimington, former director-general of MI5
"Chambers's triumph is to chronicle the crucial period of physical, emotional and intellectual exile through which Arthur Ransome finally came home."
- The Guardian
- The Times (UK), Stella Rimington, former director-general of MI5
"Chambers's triumph is to chronicle the crucial period of physical, emotional and intellectual exile through which Arthur Ransome finally came home."
- The Guardian
February 15, 2014
Bought this book as a big fan of the Swallows and Amazons series. Pretty hard going even though I've studied this period of history but was glad I battled through to the end because it did provide some insights into the formation of his novels. It was extremely inconclusive, in the fashion of modern history, about Ransome's role and motivation in Russia, due to the loss of so many relevant papers - but it painted a vivid portrait of several episodes in his life. One to re-visit another time.
May 16, 2014
Chamber's book was pretty good but I recommend Brogan's for a more definitive account. There is way too much speculation in this book, the Security Service documents are out there and offer some insight but Chambers seems to draw too many conclusions from documents that are not conclusive. It was an entertaining read but the documents can be viewed in the UK National Archives. I recommend anyone who is interested to look at them. You may be surprised...
March 1, 2015
This is one of the best biographies I've ever read. An absolutely fascinating take on legendary children's author Arthur Ransome (and from what I can tell, double agent). I grew up on Arthur Ransome's children's books and it was a real grown up treat to discover the truth behind the enigma. Thoroughly recommended book whether you have read any Arthur Randsome's books or not.
May 19, 2016
Some interesting new information with release of files from National Archive. Found Ransome's deteriorating relationship with his daughter very sad. Roland Chambers research is thorough but O found his style turgid in places
July 28, 2010
Who knew Ransome led such a wild life? His books are TAME by comparison.
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