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The Last Englishman: The Double Life Of Arthur Ransome

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Author Roland Chambers
ISBN 9780571222612
Pages 390
Condition Good
Format Hardback

Arthur Ransome was, in the mid-twentieth century, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of childrens books which shaped the imagination of a generation. Rooted in the heyday of the British Empire, Swallows and Amazons and its sequels described a nostalgic Utopia.Yet before that, Arthur Ransome, famous for different reasons. Between 1917 and 1924, as Russian correspondent for the Daily News and Manchester Guardian, he was an uncritical apologist for the Bolshevik regime, with unique access to the revolutionary leaders. As the Red Army engaged with an Allied invasion of Russia, Ransome was conducting a love affair with Evgenia Shelepina, private secretary to Leon Trotsky, then Soviet Commissar for War. As the intimate friend of Karl Radek, the Bolshevik Chief of Propaganda, he denied the Red Terror and compared Lenin to Oliver Cromwell. No English journalist was considered more controversial, or more damaging to British security. This is a fascinating, often chilling revision of an English icon through the most formative decade of the twentieth century.
  • Expect some minor foxed spots on the book edges.
  • All books listed do not have annotations on reading pages, loose pages, water stains, and broken spines
  • Some may have names or short messages written on the flyleaf of the book
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