Ransom

ARTHUR RANSOME (1884 - 1967)

The famous author of Swallows and Amazons had an adventurous youth. He went to Russia to learn the language, and escape his first wife, in 1913. This trip resulted in a popular book, still in print, Old Peter's Russian Tales. He sailed back to Britain after the outbreak of war in August 1914, but returned to Russia on 30 December and thereafter covered the war in the East as a journalist for the left-wing Daily News. He was back in England for a short visit in November 1916 and again in October 1917, missing the Bolshevik insurrection by four weeks. All of these trips were no doubt via Scandinavia and the Bergen ferry to Newcastle. The Baltic was a German lake, but before 1917, the Germans allowed North Sea ferry traffic so long as the ships carried no cargo. After the Kaiser declared unrestricted naval warfare in 1917, the ferries were liable to be sunk. In December 1917, because strike action paralysed the railways, Ransome had to go by ship from the Thames to Newcastle to catch the Norway ferry. The skipper was disinclined to take him, or indeed anybody, since his coal was strike-bound. Eventually he agreed to use his coal-dust ballast as fuel and the company arrived in Bergen as black as the ace of spades. On this occasion, Ransome was entrusted with a diplomatic bag for Stockholm. Ransome carried on to Russia, and returned via Newcastle again in March 1919. Significantly, he was met in London at King's Cross, the terminus for the Newcastle train. He was taken at once to Scotland Yard and also interviewed at the foreign office.

Ransome was taken on by the famous C.P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian, who had been impressed by his book Six Weeks in Russia. Back in Russia in 1919, Ransome reported on the civil war and the allied intervention. He wore a Russian military uniform with the Russian letters BK (war correspondent) on his cap. His position has often been a subject for discussion - was he an allied agent? Was he actually a communist agent? He had established friendly relations with Trotsky, Lenin, Bukharin and Radek, with whom he shared a house, while his reports were objective and tried to give a sympathetic picture of what the Bolsheviks were attempting to do. This earned him considerable mistrust at home. He left Russia in 1924 with Trotsky's secretary, whom he married. The couple eventually settled in the Lake District.

Arthur Ransome was the first winner of the Carnegie Medal, for Pigeon Post in 1936. He was also awarded a D.Litt by Durham University.

Nikolai Gumilyov, the notable Russian poet who was executed in 1921 must have travelled by the Bergen-Newcastle ferry (he visited London in 1916) as did Hugh Walpole (q.v.), Yevgeni Zamyatin (v ZAMYATIN IN NEWCASTLE) - and Nikolai Bukharin (v NORTH EAST HALL OF FAME)

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
ARTHUR RANSOME (1884 - 1967) The famous author of Swallows and Amazons had an adventurous youth. He went to Russia to learn the language, and escape his first wife, in 1913. This trip resulted in a popular book, still in print, Old Peter's Russian Tales. He sailed back to Britain after the outbreak of war in August 1914, but returned to Russia on 30 December and thereafter covered the war in the East as a journalist for the left-wing Daily News. He was back in England for a short visit in November 1916 and again in October 1917, missing the Bolshevik insurrection by four weeks. All of these trips were no doubt via Scandinavia and the Bergen ferry to Newcastle. The Baltic was a German lake, but before 1917, the Germans allowed North Sea ferry traffic so long as the ships carried no cargo. After the Kaiser declared unrestricted naval warfare in 1917, the ferries were liable to be sunk. In December 1917, because strike action paralysed the railways, Ransome had to go by ship from the Thames to Newcastle to catch the Norway ferry. The skipper was disinclined to take him, or indeed anybody, since his coal was strike-bound. Eventually he agreed to use his coal-dust ballast as fuel and the company arrived in Bergen as black as the ace of spades. On this occasion, Ransome was entrusted with a diplomatic bag for Stockholm. Ransome carried on to Russia, and returned via Newcastle again in March 1919. Significantly, he was met in London at King's Cross, the terminus for the Newcastle train. He was taken at once to Scotland Yard and also interviewed at the foreign office. Ransome was taken on by the famous C.P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian, who had been impressed by his book Six Weeks in Russia. Back in Russia in 1919, Ransome reported on the civil war and the allied intervention. He wore a Russian military uniform with the Russian letters BK (war correspondent) on his cap. His position has often been a subject for discussion - was he an allied agent? Was he actually a communist agent? He had established friendly relations with Trotsky, Lenin, Bukharin and Radek, with whom he shared a house, while his reports were objective and tried to give a sympathetic picture of what the Bolsheviks were attempting to do. This earned him considerable mistrust at home. He left Russia in 1924 with Trotsky's secretary, whom he married. The couple eventually settled in the Lake District. Arthur Ransome was the first winner of the Carnegie Medal, for Pigeon Post in 1936. He was also awarded a D.Litt by Durham University. Nikolai Gumilyov, the notable Russian poet who was executed in 1921 must have travelled by the Bergen-Newcastle ferry (he visited London in 1916) as did Hugh Walpole (q.v.), Yevgeni Zamyatin (v ZAMYATIN IN NEWCASTLE) - and Nikolai Bukharin (v NORTH EAST HALL OF FAME)
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