Great Northern? by Arthur Ransome, First Edition with Dust Jacket

Arthur [Mitchell] Ransome (1884 to 1967)—English author and journalist, born in Leeds and best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books (Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Peter Duck, Winter Holiday, Coot Club, Pigeon Post, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, Secret Water, The Big Six, Missee Lee, The Picts And The Martyrs: or Not Welcome At All and Great Northern?). He was also the author of forty or so other titles including other children's books, fishing books, sailing books and books on politics

Jonathan Cape Limited—(Founded in 1919) British publisher founded in 1919 by Herbert Jonathan Cape (1879-1960), the son of a builder who started as an apprentice in the book trade. The company was initially named Jonathan Page and Company (Page was his mother's maiden name) and this changed to Jonathan Cape in 1921. Its most books and authors are probably: T. E. Lawrence, Arthur Ransome, the later Roald Dahl books, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, Fitzroy Maclean's Eastern Approaches, the James Bond series by Ian Fleming and more recently Anita Brookner, Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Salman Rushdie. It is currently an imprint of Random House.

Swallows and Amazons—A series of 12 (Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Peter Duck, Winter Holiday, Coot Club, Pigeon Post, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, Secret Water, The Big Six, Missee Lee, The Picts And The Martyrs: or Not Welcome At All and Great Northern?) children's books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series. They involve the outdoor adventures of children, most notably John, Susan, Titty, and Roger Walker, Nancy and Peggy Blackett and Dick and Dorothea Callum. They portray an idyllic, yet also realistic, depiction of childhood adventure set in the 1930s. The series contains 12 books. The first book was originally published in 1930 and the last book was originally published in 1947. Titles in the series are: 1—'Swallows and Amazons', 2—'Swallowdale', 3—'Peter Duck', 4—'Winter Holiday', 5—'Coot Club', 6—'Pigeon Post', 7—'We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea', 8—'Secret Water', 9—'The Big Six', 10—'Missee Lee', 11—'The Picts and the Martyrs: Or Not Welcome at All', 12—'Great Northern?' and 13—'Coots in the North (Unfinished)'

Dick's bird watching discovery turns the cruise of the Sea Bear into a desperate chase to prevent a bird collector finding and removed eggs from the nest of the Great Northern. The last in the series, based around the Outer Hebrides.

There are twenty nine chapters: 1—'The Sea Bear', 2—'Feeling Her Way In', 3—'Putting Her on Legs', 4—'The First Discovery', 5—''we Are Being Stalked'', 6—'First Sight of the Birds', 7—'Is it or Isn't It?', 8—''He's Still There!'', 9—'Cross Purposes', 10—'Mutiny Aboard', 11—'The Egg-Collector Cooks His Own Goose', 12—'Waiting for a Chance', 13—'Giving Him the Slip', 14—''I've Got to Have a Hide'', 15—'Interrupted Netting Party', 16—'A Good Look-Out', 17—'Enemies Afloat and Ashore', 18—'Night Visit to the Island', 19—'A Clear Coast for Dick', 20—'The Decoys', 21—'The Red Herrings', 22—'The Round-Up', 23—'Ship's Naturalist', 24—'Unwanted Rescuer', 25—'Roger's Dull Day', 26—'The McGinty Listens to Reason', 27—'Too Late!', 28—''But What Has He Done with the Eggs?'' and 29—'Quick Quick'.

Full page illustrations include : 'Scrubbing the Sea Bear', 'Mac'S Chart of the Cove', 'Into the Mist', 'How Legs Work', 'A Page From Dick's Notebook', 'Dick Goes Off to the Lochs', 'Another Page From Dick's Notebook', 'In the Cabin of the Pterodactyl', 'Mr Jemmerling Comes Aboard', 'The Searchlight', 'Portage', 'Great Northern Diver', 'Peggy at the Cross - Trees', 'The Sleeping Beauty', 'So Far, So Good…', 'In the Hide', 'Too Close a View', 'Map Showing Their Tracks', 'A Hand at His Collar', 'Roger at the Prison Door', 'The MacGinty and His Prisoners', 'Capsize of the Folding Boat' and 'Farewell to the Sea Bear'.