It is rather a jolt to be reminded that Ransome died as late as 1967; the Swallows and Amazons books seem already to belong to a faraway culture and mood. He had an interesting life, seeing the Russian Revolution at first hand as a journalist, and marrying (as his second wife) the secretary of Trotsky. But sailing boats were his passion, and he owned at least five - a love which passed on into many of his books, which have an authentic saltwater smell. The tone of his letters is generally what you might expect, hearty and masculine, but showing that he took his storyteller's craft, and his public, very seriously. Many of them are addressed to members of his family, including his long-lived mother, many more are to the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis, and a few are addressed to fellow-writers such as Tolkien and Wodehouse. Ransome's own lively, cartoonish drawings add to the appeal of the book overall.
Brian Fallon