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Sophie Neville Explores Arthur Ransome’s Lake District

by Nancy Blackett

Sophie Neville, President of the Arthur Ransome Society, explores some of the “Swallows and Amazons” locations as revealed in a letter by Arthur Ransome himself… I have been sent a copy of a letter written to a reader by Arthur Ransome in June 1955, revealing where some of his locations can be found. I was […]

School comes to Arthur Ransome’s Nancy Blackett

by Nancy Blackett

Pupils from a Suffolk school spent a day visiting Nancy Blackett at Woolverstone Marina last week. Nancy Blackett Trust President Peter Willis was on hand to help show the children from Framlingham College Prep School around Arthur Ransome’s favourite yacht on 2nd October, ably assisted by Simon Jackson and Neil Brooks. The children happened to be […]

Nancy Blackett’s Hungarian Visitors and Their Special Edition of ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’

by Nancy Blackett

Nancy Blackett is currently holed up in her home berth at Woolverstone Marina with a suspected gearbox problem, writes John Smith, but it did not stop new member Kata Molnár and family visiting her on Sunday (7th Oct). They sent this lovely photo of them aboard along with the following message: “The book is the Hungarian […]

Christmas is coming!

by Nancy Blackett
3 for 2 on Claudia Myatt Christmas cards

We’re sorry to be so nerve-danglingly jovial, but we have to say it – Christmas is coming! We also expect that you’ll be looking around for gift ideas, so we’ve come up with these special offers for you: “Swallows and Amazons” books and bookmarks How about an Arthur Ransome book with an exclusive matching bookmark? […]

Happy 80th birthday Selina King!

by Nancy Blackett

Today, September 25th, 2018, marks the 80th anniversary of the launch of Arthur Ransome’s Selina King at Harry King’s yard in Pin Mill. The largest and finest of Ransome’s sea-going yachts, she was commissioned as a replacement for his Nancy Blackett. She was designed by Fred Shepherd, who came up with a handsome 35ft double-ended […]

Sister ship to Ransome’s last, lost Lottie for sale

by Nancy Blackett

Arthur Ransome’s last yacht was a six-ton aft-cockpit Hillyard sloop which he had built to replace the centre-cockpit Lottie Blossom – which he and his wife Evgenia hadn’t got on with. They transferred the name Lottie Blossom to the new boat, and the new owner of the earlier boat renamed her Ragged Robin III, under which […]

Swallow all lit up at the Kendal Torchlight Procession

by Nancy Blackett

Swallow, the restored dinghy from the original “Swallows and Amazons” movie, made a special appearance at the Kendal Torchlight Procession on Friday (14th September), writes Rob Boden… Each year Kendal has a Torchlight Procession through the town centre. I only noticed a week before that the theme this year was books and authors, so I made […]

The boats used for making the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974)

by Nancy Blackett

Sophie Neville explores the stories of some of the boats that appeared in the original “Swallows and Amazons” film… I went on BBC Radio Cumbria recently, to ask if I could meet anyone involved in filming the original film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in the summer of 1973, since it was made on location in […]

Our Chairman’s Postcard from the Isle of Skye

by Nancy Blackett

The Nancy Blackett Trust’s Chairman, Roger Sturge, is on a sailing expedition to the Isle of Skye with his appropriately-named yacht Wild Cat. He reports that it is a rather wild place, having seen hundreds of seals and a couple of dolphins, but thankfully there has been no sign of a Pterodactyl…  

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