Arthur Ransome — The Swallows and Amazons Adventures

London, Jonathan Cape, 1967-1995. Cloth. A smart five volume set of Ransome's adventure series Swallows and Amazons, with illustrations throughout. Five volumes. Illustrated throughout. Written and illustrated by Arthur Michell Ransome, an English author and journalist best known for this series of children's books which remains in print to this day. The Swallows and Amazons series is a series of twelve children's adventure novels set in the interwar period. The novels involve group adventures by children in their school holidays and mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads which revolve around outdoor activities. This set contains six of the the best known novels of the series, including: Peter Duck (1967), the third book in the series. Twenty-seventh impression. The Swallows and Amazons sail to Crab Island with Captain Flint and Peter Duck, an old sailor, to recover buried treasure. Featuring an altercation with pirates also intending to recover the treasure. Coot Club (1991), the fifth book in the series. Revised edition. The book sees Dick and Dorothea Callum visiting the Norfolk Broads during the Easter holidays, eager to learn to sail so that they can impress the Swallows and Amazons when they return to the Lake District later that year. The Big Six (1995), the ninth book in the series. Revised edition. The book returns Dick and Dorothea Callum, known as the Ds, to the Norfolk Broads where they renew their friendship with the members of the Coot Club. The Picts and the Martyrs (1991), the eleventh book in the series. The Ds have been invited to stay at Beckfoot at the start of the summer holidays. When Great Aunt Maria finds out that the Blackett girls have been left at home, she decides to come and take care of them all. Great Northern? (1991), the twelfth and final book in the series. The Swallows, the Amazons, and the Ds, are reunited in this book for the first time since Pigeon Post. Set in the Outer Hebrides and the two familiar Ransome themes of sailing and ornithology come to the fore. In the original green cloth binding. Externally, very smart with light wear to the extremities. Original dust wrappers are unclipped other than Peter Duck which has been price-clipped. Dust wrappers are very smart with light wear to the extremities and the odd small closed tear to the panel edges. Light sunning to the spines with further sunning to the spine of Peter Duck. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean with the odd small spot. A contemporary ink inscription to the front endpaper. Near Fine . Ill.: Arthur Ransome. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed.