MISSEE LEE

In the tenth instalment of the Swallows and Amazons series, the young crew come face-to-face with the fiercest pirate of the South China Seas.
     'So long,' called the harbourmaster. 'Don't run into Missee Lee!'

     The Swallows, Amazons and Captain Flint are on a round-the-world voyage. It's been plain sailing for a hundred ports and now they are on their way to China. A friendly harbourmaster has given them a warning: to watch out for pirates roaming the waters around the Chinese coast, but they haven't paid much heed. Until the day that Gibber the monkey accidentally sinks the faithful Wild Cat. Separated, captured, miles from home, the Swallows and Amazons are about to meet their fate and the pirate who holds it: the legendary Missee Lee.

Arthur Ransome was born in 1884. 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 of England with his Russian wife where, in 1929, he wrote Swallows and Amazons. Thus began a writing career that has produced some of the best children’s literature of all time.