Arthur Ransome

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Arthur Mitchell Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and educated in Windermere and Rugby. In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practise writing, producing several minor works before 'Bohemia in London' (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book.

After ending an unhappy first marriage, and working as a journalist in St Petersburg during the Russian Revolution, Ransome married Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina. Together they lived in Estonia for several years before moving back to England's Lake District. Here, Ransome continued to work as a journalist and wrote many successful children's books, including his best known 'Swallows and Amazons' series.

Arthur Ransome died in June 1967 and is buried at Rusland in the Lake District.

Author's Comment: You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.

Nationality: British