Review: Arthur Ransome Master Storyteller, by Roger Wardale
ARTHUR Ransome’s influence over young readers has been enduring and, in some cases, life-changing.
He set David Bellamy ‘on the road to becoming a botanist’; inspired Clare Francis and Dame Ellen MacArthur to start sailing; and stimulated Roger Wardale, the author of this splendid book, to become a lifelong Swallows and Amazons devotee.
This, the seventh Swallows and Amazons-related book by Mr Wardale, pays homage to Ransome’s narrative skills and examines how the 12 books in the series came to be written ‘against the odds’; as the author was battling against ill-health and ‘his own perceived shortcomings’.
ARTHUR RANSOME: MASTER STORYTELLER, Roger Wardale, Great Northern Books, £16.99.
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