On leaving Rugby, Arthur Ransome went on to study science at the Yorkshire College but by then his burning ambition was to be a writer and in 1902, after less than a year at the College, he managed to get a job with a London publisher and moved south. His career in publishing lasted only 18 months, after which he started to earn a living by writing articles for literary magazines. All this time he was reading as many books as he could find. In 1903 Ransome revisited Coniston, where he met the artist and writer W G Collingwood, whom Ransome remembered as author of Thorstein of the Mere, which he had read as a child. Collingwood was to be a huge influence on Ransome, and the Collingwood family more or less adopted him. In 1904 Ransome published his first book, a collection of essays called The Souls of the Streets, followed in 1905 by another collection, The Stone Lady, neither of which was well received. Other books followed and were similarly unsuccessful, with the exception of Bohemia in London, published in 1907 and generally regarded as Ransome’s first ‘real book’.

In 1908 Ransome met Ivy Constance Walker and immediately fell in love with her. They married in March 1909, but the union was never to be a happy one. The couple set up home in Hampshire, near Petersfield, where Ransome completed his new book History of Story-Telling, which was better received. In May 1910 Ivy gave birth to a daughter, Tabitha. More books followed, including commissioned studies of Edgar Allan Poe (1910) and Oscar Wilde (1912). The book on Wilde instigated an unsuccessful action for libel by Lord Alfred Douglas against Arthur Ransome and his publishers, the case being heard in the High Court in April 1913.

A month later, in May 1913, Ransome set off for Russia, staying in St Petersburg for three months while he learnt Russian to conversational level and collected Russian folk-tales. On his return to England, he published a rhyming version of Aladdin and the story Blue Treacle. In 1914 and 1915 Ransome paid several more visits to Russia, and completed Old Peter’s Russian Tales. In November 1915 he returned once again to Russia, this time as correspondent for the Daily News, basing himself in Moscow where he spent an eventful four years reporting on the Revolution and its aftermath. His presence in Russia was also known to British Intelligence, to whom Ransome is thought to have passed on information, but it seems that his independence of mind did not make him acceptable as an agent.

In 1917, while seeking an interview with Leon Trotsky, Ransome met Trotsky’s personal secretary, Evgenia Shelepina, and a relationship developed. In the summer of 1919 Ransome returned to England and published Six Weeks in Russia in 1919. Later that year, he brought Evgenia out of Russia in dangerous circumstances, the couple reaching safety in Reval, Estonia. On arrival, Ransome suffered from a bout of serious gastric illness, a problem which was to plague him throughout his life. Based in Reval and later in Riga in Latvia, Ransome reported on Russian affairs for the Manchester Guardian until 1924. While in Riga, he had a 30-foot sailing boat built, the Racundra, in which he made a Baltic voyage, an account of which was published in 1923 under the title Racundra’s First Cruise.

After bitter negotiations, Arthur and Ivy Ransome were divorced in 1924, and he married Evgenia in May of that year. Although Ransome tried to keep in contact with his daughter Tabitha, the relationship between them deteriorated after the divorce and they became estranged. In February 1925 Arthur and Evgenia Ransome returned to England and set up home in the Lake District within convenient distance from the offices of the Manchester Guardian, for which Ransome continued to write regular articles, chiefly about fishing. However he also accepted overseas assignments, revisiting Russia and making a memorable trip to China in 1927-28.

In April 1928 W G Collingwood’s daughter Dora returned from Aleppo to Coniston for an extended stay along with her husband Ernest Altounyan and their five children. Ransome renewed the friendship, and he and Ernest provided two small boats, Swallow and Mavis, for the children to sail. After the Altounyans returned to Aleppo, Arthur continued to sail Swallow, and compiled a selection of his fishing articles for publication under the title Rod and Line. At the same time he worked on a lake adventure which involved Swallow and Mavis (renamed Amazon) and a group of children loosely based on the Altounyans.

In the spring of 1929, Arthur Ransome submitted a synopsis and 50 pages of the story Swallows and Amazons to the publishers Jonathan Cape, who gave a favourable response. The book was published in July 1930, and received enthusiastic reviews. Later that year, Swallows and Amazons was published in America. From that time Ransome ceased to write for the Manchester Guardian and dedicated himself to writing adventure stories for children.His next book, Swallowdale, published in October 1931, was a sequel to Swallows and Amazons and featured the same characters, the sisters Nancy and Peggy Blackett, born and bred in the Lake District, and the visiting Walker children, John, Susan, Titty and Roger, these characters reappearing in most of the subsequent books. Of these, Nancy Blackett, the girl-pirate, is Ransome’s most powerful creation and has become one of the classic characters in British literature. Although adults appear in the stories, they are kept largely in the background, with the exception of the Blacketts’ kindly Uncle Jim, known as ‘Captain Flint’.

In October 1932, the next story, Peter Duck, appeared – a ‘Treasure Island’ type of fantasy, set in the Caribbean. This was followed a year later by Winter Holiday, published in November 1933. This marked a change in approach by Ransome, as the story is set in mid-winter amid a frozen landscape, and two fresh characters are introduced – Dick and Dorothea Callum, city-dwellers from London. Ransome also rang the changes in his next book, Coot Club, published in November 1934, which is set on the Norfolk Broads and features the Callums and a range of local children, including three sons of boatbuilders.

In 1935 the Ransomes moved to Pin Mill on the Suffolk coast, an event which delayed for a year the completion of his next book, Pigeon Post, a gold-prospecting story set in the Lake District and involving all eight of his principal characters. Soon after the move, Ransome bought a seven-ton cutter and promptly renamed her Nancy Blackett. His experiences aboard Nancy prompted the writing of his next book, We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, published in November 1937, a North Sea adventure featuring the four Walker children aboard Nancy (renamed Goblin in the story). (Ransome owned a number of boats during his life. Nancy Blackett still exists and is now owned and sailed by the Nancy Blackett Trust.)

In November 1939 Secret Water was published, a story set among the islands and inlets of Hamford Water, on the Essex coast. Ransome returned to the Broads for his next book, The Big Six, published in November 1940, a detective story featuring the Callums and a full local cast, including one of Ransome’s classic ‘villains’, George Owdon. A year later Missee Lee was published, an adventure clearly based on memories of Ransome’s 1927 China visit and featuring a real adult female pirate.

By 1940 the Ransomes had moved back to the Lake District, and The Picts and the Martyrs, published in June 1943, features the familiar lake setting and many of the characters from the earlier books, including Ransome’s most feared adult character, the Great Aunt. His final book, Great Northern?, set in the Hebrides and based on a suggestion by Myles North, appeared in August 1947.

In 1948 Arthur and Evgenia moved to Lowick Hall, a large house in the Crake valley, but its upkeep proved too much for them, and in 1950 they moved to a flat in Fulham, London, where they lived quietly for 13 years. However, they still took regular holidays in the Lake District, at Hilltop Cottage, Haverthwaite, leading to a decision in 1963 to buy that property and move north. This was to be their last move, as in October 1965 Arthur Ransome became seriously ill and was moved to Cheadle Royal Hospital, Manchester, where he died on 3rd June 1967, aged 83. His wife Evgenia died eight years later in 1975, and both Arthur and Evgenia are buried in Rusland Churchyard.

During his life Arthur Ransome also wrote many short stories and two uncompleted works, The River Comes First and Coots in the North. These have now been published. The twelve ‘Swallows and Amazons’ books have been published world-wide, in hard-back and paper-back format, and in many languages, and they have never been out of print. They are regarded as classics of children’s literature.