Part of Series
Someone is wrecking wild birds’ nesting places on the lake and selling eggs to out-of-town collectors. It’s the Coot Club Bird Protection Society to the rescue! Dick and Dorothea Callum came to the Norfolk Broads during the Easter holidays, eager to learn to sail. There, they run into the Coot Club―children who protect the local birds from thoughtless tourists. Trouble begins when a coot’s nest is disturbed by a ship full of “Hullabaloos”―rude holiday boaters. The children try to convince the “Hullabaloos” to moor their noisy boat somewhere else. This fails and frantic chases, calamitous boat collisions, daring rescues (including by a dog, William the pug), and rewards ensue! Friendship and resourcefulness, dangers and excitement: Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series has stood the test of time. More than just great stories, each one celebrates independence and initiative with a colorful, large cast of characters. Coot Club (originally published in 1934) was ahead of its time in its concern for protecting wildlife. It is the fifth title in the Swallows and Amazons series, books for children or grownups, anyone captivated by a world of adventure, exploration, and imagination.
Author
Arthur Michell Ransome (January 18, 1884 – June 3, 1967) was an English author and journalist. He was educated in Windermere and Rugby. In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practice writing, producing several minor works before Bohemia in London (1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book. An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St. Petersburg, where he was ideally placed to observe and report on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shvelpina. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he "spied" for both the Bolsheviks and Britain. Ransome married Evgenia and returned to England in 1924. Settling in the Lake District, he spent the late 1920s as a foreign correspondent and highly-respected angling columnist for the Manchester Guardian, before settling down to write Swallows and Amazons and its successors. Today Ransome is best known for his Swallows and Amazons series of novels, (1931 - 1947). All remain in print and have been widely translated. Arthur Ransome died in June 1967 and is buried at Rusland in the Lake District.
