The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome

by Roland Chambers
David R. Godine, Publisher

Arthur Ransome is best known as the author-illustrator of the beloved Swallows & Amazons adventure stories for young readers. Roland Chambers’s biography reveals him as a political journalist, communist sympathizer, and possible traitor to the Empire – altogether more complex than the fozy Englishman most people imagine him to be. Another book we brought in from a UK publisher, The Last Englishman was saddled with a dreadful jacket and dreary page design. Because we didn’t have the budget for a new index I couldn’t alter the text very much and had to content myself with reworking the chapter heads in the interior. I did have plenty of latitude on the jacket: Chambers was very happy to have a book whose exterior finally matched the muscularity of his text.

Hardcover with jacket, 6 × 9"