THE LAST ENGLISHMAN. The Double Life of Arthur Ransome.

(Ransome) Chambers, Roland.

ISBN 10: 0571222617 / ISBN 13: 9780571222612

Published by Faber and Faber, 2009., 2009

About this Item

1st edition. 8vo. x + 390pp. B/w. illustrations. Original boards. Pictorial cream d/w. lettered in brown, very good. ISBN 9780571222612 US$15.

Seller Inventory # 180480

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE LAST ENGLISHMAN. The Double Life of Arthur Ransome.
• Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2009.
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571222617
• ISBN 13: 9780571222612
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • LITERATURE

About this title

Synopsis

Arthur Ransome was, in the mid-twentieth century, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of childrens books which shaped the imagination of a generation. Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, Swallows and Amazons and its sequels described a nostalgic Utopia.Yet before that, Arthur Ransome, famous for different reasons. Between 1917 and 1924, as Russian correspondent for the Daily News and Manchester Guardian, he was an uncritical apologist for the Bolshevik regime, with unique access to the revolutionary leaders. As the Red Army engaged with an Allied invasion of Russia, Ransome was conducting a love affair with Evgenia Shelepina, private secretary to Leon Trotsky, then Soviet Commissar for War. As the intimate friend of Karl Radek, the Bolshevik Chief of Propaganda, he denied the Red Terror and compared Lenin to Oliver Cromwell. No English journalist was considered more controversial, or more damaging to British security. This is a fascinating, often chilling revision of an English icon through the most formative decade of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Roland Chambers is a biographer and children's book author. He divides his time between London and Connecticut.