Paul Oldham reviewed Coots in the North by Arthur Ransome
Both wonderful and frustrating
4 stars
This is only a book for Ransome enthusiasts, but if that's you - and there's a lot of us - then this is a book you need to read as it concludes with the opening four chapters, and some other snippets, of what would have been the thirteenth book of the Swallows and Amazons saga, which Brogan speculatively titles 'Coots in the North'. What there is of it suggests it would have been a fine addition to the novels but it wasn't to be.
The book also features some other, complete, short stories Ransome wrote at various times and some of those are very fine too as are the opening chapters of another novel which he never finished.
This is only a book for Ransome enthusiasts, but if that's you - and there's a lot of us - then this is a book you need to read as it concludes with the opening four chapters, and some other snippets, of what would have been the thirteenth book of the Swallows and Amazons saga, which Brogan speculatively titles 'Coots in the North'. What there is of it suggests it would have been a fine addition to the novels but it wasn't to be.
The book also features some other, complete, short stories Ransome wrote at various times and some of those are very fine too as are the opening chapters of another novel which he never finished.