Racundra′s Third Cruise - Hardcover

Ransome, Arthur

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1898660891 ISBN 13: 9781898660897

Publisher: Fernhurst Books Ltd., 2002

Synopsis

THIS IS A NEW, UNPUBLISHED, ARTHUR RANSOME STORY. It describes a sailing cruise in Latvia with his new wife Evgenia (formerly Trotsky's secretary) up the Aa River, from Riga to Mitau and back. A classic Ransome story, it is illustrated with his own photos. Swallows and Amazons is responsible for more people taking up sailing that any other book. Arthur Ransome's style is unique and appeals to children and adults alike. The book was collated by Brian Hammett from Ransome's (often hand--written) manuscript, and a foreword puts the book in perspective.

About this title

About the Author

Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and went to school at Rugby. He was in Russia in 1917, and witnessed the Revolution, which he reported for the Manchester Guardian. After escaping to Scandinavia, he settled in the Lake District with his Russian wife. Ransome died in 1967. He and his wife Evgenia lie buried in the churchyard of St Paul's Church, Rusland, in the southern Lake District.

From the Back Cover

Here, for the first time in many years, is a new previously unpublished book be Arthur Ransome, author of the Swallows & Amazons series of children's books. Racundra's Third Cruise is a detailed account of a cruise up the River Lieupe from Riga, latvia to Jelgrava in the summer of 1924.

The voyage took place shortly after his second marriage to Evgenia Shelepina, Trotsky's secretary. Ransome describes in detail a leisurely six-week sailing cruise. He covers the trip, the countryside, local people and a blow-by-blow, fish-by-fish account of his second greatest passion, after sailing, fishing. It was without doubt intended for publication as a follow-up to his first really successful book Racundra's First Cruise, which was published in 1923.

The book contain maps and sketches, including the map used by Ransome for the voyage, lines of Racundra from the Cruising Association's archives, many original Ransome pictures of the trip, together with present-day photographs of the area.

'The cook struggled up the companionway with a sandwich. She asked real inquiry, "Are we going to be drowned before morning?"

I leaned forward from the steering-well and shouted, "Why?"

"Because I have two thermos flasks full of hot coffee. If we are, we may as well drink them both. If not, I'll keep one till tomorrow."'

They kept one.

The long-suffering Evgenia, during Racundra's First Cruise.

'The cook says there is no point in living in Racundra, that only children are glad to live in a ship, that there is nothing to see, nothing to write about, and that she's sick of wind and rain and living in a small cabin; that I grow worse with age, and that proper authors live at home and write books out of their heads.'

The not so long-suffering Evgenia, during Racundra's Third Cruise.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fernhurst Books Ltd.
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1898660891
• ISBN 13: 9781898660897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128