Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60172 in Books
• Published on: 1982-06-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent outdoor adventures of children
Like all Arthur Ransome's childrens books the Great Northern? adventures take place out-of-doors and with a close affiliation to boats and nature. Children can easily identify with the characters and are stimulated to attempt the wholesome lifestyle portrayed. Although a little old-fashioned and perhaps romantic for this century, this book will give great enjoyment to its readers and will encourage those whose first Arthur Ransome book this might be to read about its characters in other volumes. For those who know the characters already, this is a welcome addition to the series.

Enemies on all sides, can stealth and cunning win the day?
Another wonderful story of the Swallows, Amazons and Ds. This time they are far out in the Scottish Highlands and, unusually, it is the mild-mannered Dick, rather than the fiery Nancy who is calling the shots. Rather than ape the myriad reviews that give you a banal synopsis of the plot, I will simply say that this, like all the other books in the series, is a jewel that you and your children will want to gaze upon again and again. If I can find fault with these books, and I'm sure Arthur Ransome would agree with me, it is the dreadful, vulgar cover illustrations that Red Fox Publishing has chosen for their reissue. It is close to sacrilegious that such fine writing should be dressed in such appalling style.

I was transported by this book
I was given a copy of "Great Northern" for my twelfth birthday, and I can vividly remember this birthday even now, fifty years later. I had never read any Arthur Ransome books before, and I didn't know what to expect. I devoured the book in a couple of days. I was transported, and in particular I gained a love and romantic attachment to the west coast of Scotland that has never left me, even though I now live 12,000 miles away in New Zealand. I really miss those bens, the lochs and lochans, the heather and water and the stone, the beautiful rugged stone - its a place where the presence of Gaia is tangible, you can almost hear her breathing. The story of the childrens' efforts to thwart the egg collector and record the first breeding of the Great Northern diver in Scotalnd was to me so exciting, unputdownable. The author's sense of place is brilliant, as it is in his other books, and of course, after this, I read them all, several times.

I gained a love of sailing too, and I was once priveliged to take my Drascombe lugger to the Isle of Ulva, and after anchoring in some small natural harbour, I climbed a steep brae, with wonderful views over to Staffa and the Treshnish Isles, and there I met my first diver, a red throated one, which croaked like a frog in a small lochan alongside my path.

I don't know what modern children think of Arthur Ransome's books. But they are all, as is "Great Northern", classics, and should endure as long as the English language is spoken and understood.