Libby Purves with Dan Houston’s much-repaired family heirloom first edition of WD, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Dan Houston.

The Nancy Blackett Trust’s nine-hour marathon reading of “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea” took place on Saturday (21st October) at Pin Mill Sailing Club near Ipswich, before a large and appreciative audience.

It celebrated the 80th anniversary of the book’s publication, as well as commemorating the 50th anniversary of its author Arthur Ransome’s death.

Dan Houston, Editor of Classic Sailor magazine, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Peter Willis

The reading started promptly at 9am, and thirty-eight people took turns to read aloud each of that book’s chapters, including several national and local celebrities, including Griff Rhys Jones, Libby Purves, Sophie Neville, Christina Hardyment, Julia Jones, Francis Wheen and Ivan Cutting. Four first editions of “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea” were brought along to the event.

An estimated hundred-plus visitors came to listen at one time or another. Some arrived in time for the start at 9am and stayed right through to the end, at 6pm.

Charlie Drane, Stephanie Drane and Madeleine Young, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Peter Willis.

Young readers Charlie Drane and Madeleine Young, who live locally, were invited to take part after their solo readings in the “Shanties on the Shore” concert at Woolverstone Hall in the summer. They read the children’s voices in chapter 10, “Out to Sea”, with Charlie’s mum Stephanie filling in the narrative.

Two of the readers, Rachel Barford and Claire Thompson, were at school together, but had lost touch with each other. They were happily reunited through the reading.

Frances Wheen and Julia Jones, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Peter Willis.

Peter Willis, President of the Nancy Blackett Trust, who organised the event, said:

“This marks the 80th anniversary of the publication of ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’, which was written here in Pin Mill by Arthur Ransome, who lived here at the time and was a member of the Pin Mill sailing club. And we thought – what better way to celebrate the anniversary of the book than to actually read the whole thing?”

Griff Rhys Jones, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Dan Houston.

Griff Rhys Jones, comedian, writer, actor, and presenter, Patron of the Stour and Orwell Society and Vice-President of the Stour River Association, read chapter 8 of the book, and added:

“I was a very impressionable young eight-year-old when my dad first set off on a major journey to come round from the Blackwater in Essex, where he kept his boat, to sail it to Suffolk, and I always thought this was ‘adventure-land’. And so I ended up buying a house just over the (Shotley) Peninsula here so I could be close to ‘Arthur Ransome country'”.

He later gave a special preview of his new one-man show at the Suffolk Food Hall, where he spoke about how Ransome has influenced his life, and finished with a pitch for a film he’d like to make about Ransome’s life in Russia and how he and Evgenia escaped. So far he hasn’t found a sponsor for it.

Sophie Neville reads the final chapter, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Peter Willis.

The final chapter was read by Sophie Neville, who was 12 years old when she appeared in the 1974 “Swallows and Amazons” film, and is now President of the Arthur Ransome Society, She said:

“I played ‘Titty Walker’, able-seaman, and (the film) has been on television ever since. It was recently broadcast in Australia, so I haven’t be able to escape from the world of Arthur Ransome, but actually it’s been delightful.”

The Marathon Reading was also featured in the local press and media, including the East Anglian Daily Times and ITV Anglia.

Header photo: Nicola Farr, Marathon Reading, Pin Mill, 21 Oct 2017. Photo by Peter Willis.