Perhaps he was not satisfied with it, although there is no evidence for this. We know that at this time he was commissioned to write a series of articles, which took priority.

We do not know why he failed to complete to actual publication or, indeed, when he prepared the manuscript to the stage that he did. Full acknowledgements of the relevant Ransome sources are given at the end of the book. There follows a gap in his typed account of eleven days, two days in which he types up his notes of the sad episode during which his wife abandons ship and a further gap of five days during which he returned Racundra to her home berth leaving only his deck-log. Ransome himself clearly intended to publish it but did not complete his 80-page typescript beyond the story of the first 23 days. This account of the third cruise of Arthur Ransome’s famous yacht Racundra, from Riga to Mitau via the River Aa, was written by Ransome himself but has not hitherto been published - even though the cruise took place between August 1st and September 10th 1924 - now nearly 80 years ago. This new paperback edition and eBook will be published on 8th May – the very day that Ransome and Shelepina got married in 1924 before their honeymoon cruise which is recounted in this book. The result is a glorious volume which has delighted Ransome enthusiasts, sailors and landlubbers equally. Brian compiled this book, adding his own notes from his cruises in the same area. Ransome enthusiast, Brian Hammett, got hold of the unpublished manuscript and found Ransome's hand-written notes, diaries, logbooks and photographs in the Ransome archive at Leeds University. Ransome clearly intended to publish the account of this cruise, but never finished it. The second cruise was spoilt by bad weather, but the third cruise was special – it was his honeymoon having married Evgenia Shelepina.

His account of his first cruise on that boat was his first commercially successful book, Racundra's First Cruise (also available from Fernhurst Books).

He cruised extensively in the Baltic in the 1920s on board his beloved Racundra. He is reputed to have played chess against Lenin and he married Trotsky's secretary. Before he wrote Swallows & Amazons, Ransome was a journalist for the Daily News, based in Russia. But besides his exciting tales of children on the water there is much more to the man. Most people know of Arthur Ransome, the author of the classic children's sailing tale, Swallows & Amazons, and many other books in the same series.

Peter duck arthur ransome