Peter Duck: A Treasure Hunt in the Caribbees (Swallows and Amazons) - Softcover

Ransome, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1567924298 ISBN 13: 9781567924299

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2010

Synopsis

For anyone who loves sailing and adventure, Arthur Ransome's classic Swallows and Amazons series stands alone. Originally published in the UK over a half century ago, these books are still eagerly read by children, despite their length and their decidedly British protagonists. We attribute their success to two facts: first, Ransome is a great storyteller and, second, he clearly writes from first-hand experience. Independence and initiative are qualities any child can understand and every volume in this collection celebrates these virtues.

The third book in Arthur Ransome's wonderful series for children, Peter Duck takes intrepid explorers John, Susan, Titty, and Roger Walker and fearsome Amazon pirates Nancy and Peggy Blackett onto the high seas. Under the command of the infamous Captain Flint (Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim), the children brave a real-life pirate and his cutthroat crew, fogy, sharks, and the ravenous crabs of Crab Island in the search of buried treasure.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

“He makes a tale of adventure a handbook to adventure.” – Observer

“There is plenty of excitement, a little danger, a quality of thinking, planning and fun which is delightful and stimulating.” – TLS

About the Author:

ARTHUR RANSOME was born in Leeds in 1884. He had an adventurous life -- as a baby he was carried by his father to the top of the Old Man of Coniston, a peak that is 2,276 ft high! He went to Russia in 1913 to study folklore and in 1914, at the start of World War I he became a foreign correspondent for the Daily News. In 1917 when the Russian Revolution began he became a journalist and was a special correspondent of the Guardian. He played chess with Lenin and married Trotsky's personal secretary, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina. On their return to England, he bought a cottage near Windermere in the Lake District and began writing children's stories. In a 1958 author's note, Ransome wrote: ''I have been often asked how I came to write Swallows and Amazons. The answer is that it had its beginning long, long ago when, as children, my brother, my sisters and I spent most of our holidays on a farm at the south end of Coniston. We played in or on the lake or on the hills above... Going away from it we were half drowned in tears. While away from it, as children and as grown-ups, we dreamt about it. No matter where I was, wandering about the world, I used at night to look for the North Star and, in my mind's eye, could see the beloved sky-line of great hills beneath it. Swallows grew out of those old memories. I could not help writing it. It almost wrote itself.'' He published the first of his children's classics, the 12 Swallows and Amazons books, in 1930. In 1936 he won the first ever Carnegie Medal for his book, Pigeon Post. He died in 1967.

About this edition

• Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1567924298
• ISBN 13: 9781567924299
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 394