We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea

In this latest adventure (following Pigeon Post, winner of the Carnegie Medal), the Walker family has come to Harwich to wait for Commander Walker’s return. As usual, the children can?t stay away from boats, and this time they meet young Jim Brading, skipper of the well-found sloop Goblin. But fun turns to high drama when the anchor drags, and the four young sailors find themselves drifting out to sea ? sweeping across to Holland in the midst of a full gale! As in all of Ransome’s books, the emphasis is on self reliance, courage, and resourcefulness. We Didn?t Mean to Go to Sea is a story to warm any mariner’s heart. Full of nautical lore and adventure, it will appeal to young armchair sailors and seasoned salts alike. The seventh of the Arthur Ransome books, and I really think it is the best.? ?Sunday Times Perhaps the best of all … Told with all the wealth of practical detail and satisfying sense of reality which make Mr. Ransome so unfailingly successful.? ?Punch