The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome | Chambers Roland

This sturdy biography contains some surprises for those readers who know Ransome (1884–1967) as the author of the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books. As it turns out, Ransome was also a political journalist, a spy for the British SIS, and an outspoken defender of the Russian Revolution—all of this before he wrote the gentle children’s stories with which he is most closely associated.

This is one of those biographies that succeeds on the strength of its story rather than on the liveliness of its writing, which is staid and scholarly. But the life itself is so compelling, and so unexpectedly full of intrigue, that we are kept, if not spellbound, at least too interested to put the book down. Ransome scholars and fans of the children’s series will be drawn to the book, of course, but it will also prove satisfying to readers with an interest in the period surrounding the Russian Revolution. Like American journalist John Reed, Ransome witnessed the upheaval from the inside, not merely as an observer of events but as an involved participant.