A blank map
‘You’ll start with a blank map, that doesn’t do more than show roughly what’s water and what...
Battering-ram power
Nancy is a character with battering-ram energy in all she does, exuberantly seeking opportunities to go to ‘war’ with her...
A waste of an island
Wonderful notion this, from one of the best of Ransome's enchanting children's books. Of course if you land on an...
Long-memoried trees
We know that trees record time and climate in their year-rings – wide rings in good growing years, skinny...
Arthur Ransome – cover illustrations
If you've been following WritingRedux, you may have noticed a number of pawky playful gems from Arthur Ransome's children's books....
Dull as suet pudding
A charming alternative to ‘dull as ditchwater’. I also like the last affirmative sentence.
“Your brother is...
Foreign-going steamship
All the romance and none of the hardship in these three words.
Source: Arthur Ransome, Coot Club
...
Memory of a mistake
That awful dawning when you emerge from innocent sleep and remember something you didn’t do right, and dismay fills the...
Trim, trig and tickety-boo
Came across the upright word 'trig' in another of Arthur Ransome's charming children's adventure stories, Winter Holiday, which I read...
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