The Last Englishman

Arthur Ransome was, in the mid-twentieth century, what J.K. Rowling is today: author of a series of children's 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.

ISBN 0571222617   Pages 400 ISBN13 9780571222612 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 670 Publisher Faber and Faber   Published in London Imprint Faber and Faber   Height (mm) 241 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 161 Publication date 20 Aug 2009   Spine width (mm) 33 DEWEY 823.912   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

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