Coots In The North & Other Stories

Swallows and Amazons #12.5

by Arthur Ransome

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Childrens

184 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 1988

About the author

Arthur Michell Ransome (January 18, 1884 – June 3, 1967) was an English author and journalist. He was 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 practice writing, producing several minor works before Bohemia in London (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book.

An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St. Petersburg, where he was ideally placed to observe and report on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shvelpina. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain.

Ransome married Evgenia and returned to England in 1924. Settling in the Lake District, he spent the late 1920s as a foreign correspondent and highly-respected angling columnist for the Manchester Guardian, before settling down to write Swallows and Amazons and its successors.

Today Ransome is best known for his Swallows and Amazons series of novels, (1931 - 1947). All remain in print and have been widely translated.

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

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should remember that reading things like this is dangerous. Either the fragments are terrible, and that's sad, or they're great, and that's even sadder. This was the second kind.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of Arthur Ransome, this collection of short stories and a sketch of a longer, 13th Swallows and Amazons novel, is bittersweet. The longer novel, one can already see, would have been just as delightful as the others, and full of the kind of adventure that children in the 1930s could apparently have at the drop of a wandering hat. Today, everyone would be arrested and tried for child endangerment, even the children. But the effect is bittersweet, because of course the novel isn’t complete, and we get only a taste of what would have been a fully satisfying meal. Still, the other stories that are here have their (brief) charms, with Ransome’s love of boats and water shining through, and his exemplary ear for dialogue on display in most of them. The best ones, not surprisingly, are set on or in the water. But there is one that involve a Russian village that shows a different kind of skill and appreciation for the macabre missing almost entirely from the rest of Ransome’s oeuvre.

[Solveig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few lovely and/or scary stories by master story-teller Ransome; also contains the fragments of the titular unfinished Coot Club story. Sadly it is just the first four chapters that are finished, barely starting the story.

[Eva Langton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve given this five stars because any Arthur Ransome
fan would be hard-pressed not to do so. But I must emphasize the crushing disappointment I felt at turning the very last page. Contact! A pulled wet pony tail. And my imagination is off, bittersweet daydreams about one last novel.

[Nick Coke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved the Swallows and Amazons books since childhood and this has been sitting on my shelf unread for a long time. I must admit the unfinished ‘Coots in the North’ was pretty disappointing. Just not enough meat on the bone to be worth publishing. However, I did really enjoy some of the other stories in this book and ‘The River Comes First was wonderful! Worth it for that alone.

[Fred Langridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of unpublished (during Ransome's lifetime) fragments. I enjoyed the few chapters of The River Comes First as much as the beginning and outline of The Coots In The North.

[Jana P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ransomovu sérii Vlaštovek a Amazonek mám moc ráda, takže jsem ráda, když jsem si mohla přečíst i tuto knihu, byť obsahuje kratší texty, některé nedokončené.
Témata plachtění a rybaření, které honě spojují tuto sbírku textů, tu pro Ransomovy čtenáře jistě nejsou ničím překvapivým. Je to něco, co je pro autorovy příběhy typické a v tomto ohledu je to ten starý dobrý Ransome, jak ho čtenář zná.
Hodnocení této knize jako takové nicméně dávám průměrné. Přiznám se, že mi víc vyhovují ty jeho delší texty - ucelené romány. Nechci tvrdit, že by Ransome povídky neuměl. Já sama nejsem příliš povídkový typ a zrovna v případě tohoto autora jsem prostě zvyklá na jeho ucelená dobrodružství než jen kratší povídkové události. Snad to aspoň trochu dává smysl.
Nicméně - z těch textů uvedených v této knize mne nejvíc bavily "Řeka je nade všechno" a "Ankou". A pak to torzo z románu Lysky na severu, což je mi líto, že už to autor nestihl dokončit celé, protože uvedený začátek tohoto příběhu byl velmi zajímavý, zábavný a vlastně napínavý.
Každopádně i přes mé průměrné hodnocení jsem ráda, že se mi tato kniha dostala do rukou.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

glad i got a taste of the final unfinished manuscript, end to a great series. the rest of the stories I skimmed, after all so many books so little time and these would have been on the bottom of the list!!

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underwhelming

[HH · Rating 3 out of 5]

T - LD
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