Posted by Peter H on August 17, 2009 at 18:19:27 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Roland Chambers' Biography of AR posted by andyb on August 17, 2009 at 07:13:27:
" does that include the famous pipe smoking . .?"
I'm afraid it does. Chambers has no time for any of these details. However, it does seem that a fair bit of pipe-smoking went on whenever AR met up with first, Lettish troops, and then Red. For this, I am relying on Ted Alexander's book Ransome in Russia. Ted describes the Autobiography account of the journey as "very sketchy", and then goes on to reconstruct the journey in detail, relying on various notes, diaries etc left by AR. The journey was over 900 km and lasted a week. It was indeed very hazardous. I can't think why Chambers did not rely on Ted's text more - he includes Ted's book in his "Acknowledgments" section. I would recommend Ted's book very highly, in preference to Chambers. It is obtainable from the TARS bookshop, and it is not an 'Amazon Publication', which means that sales are not limited to TARS members.
To the plethora of press comment on Roland Chambers' book, I would like to add the review in my local rag. The reviewer makes an interesting point - that AR loved sailing because "at sea, morality is reduced to survival". Discuss.
Review in Liverpool Daily Post