Yes – Arthur Ransome’s The Big Six – the sequel to Coot Club – was published 80 years ago in 1940, on 29th November in fact.

To mark the occasion, North Norfolk’s Sea Fever Literary Festival has invited the Nancy Blackett Trust’s President Peter Willis to give a talk on the book and how it came to be written (what was the contribution of the mysterious William Blunt?).

Like many such festivals in these Covid times, Sea Fever has decided to go online, and Peter’s pre-recorded talk will be presented on Saturday 17th October at 7pm, via Zoom.

The ‘waiting room’ will be open from 6.30pm and to access the talk, you should login via the following link: https://zoom.us/j/91435457708?pwd=RFJtUllVZVNyajNJSmxwZkYyKzVzUT09
(The Meeting ID is: 914 3545 7708 and the Passcode is: Peter)

You will be asked to mute your microphone to avoid any background noise. For more details on how Zoom works, please follow this link here.

The event is free, and, if you can’t make it on Saturday, it will be posted later on YouTube. For more details of the Sea Fever Literary Festival, visit its website here.

You can also buy a copy of the Big Six (and the other Swallows and Amazons stories) from the Nancy Blackett Shop.