Secret Water by Arthur Ransome, Signed 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)'

The Swallows are tasked with mapping the small islands round Pin Mill, but will there be time to complete the map, wage war against the Eels and sacrifice Bridgit?.

There are thirty one chapters: 1—''Pudding Faces', Said Roger' The Map Complete, 2—'Adventure Ahead', 3—'Into the Unknown', 4—'The Expedition Goes Ashore', 5—'Marooned', 6—'First Hint of Savages', 7—'Hoofmakers in the Mud', 8—'The Mastodon's Lair', 9—'Making a Friend of a Savage', 10—'The Straights of Magellan', 11—'War or Exploration', 12—'Blood and Iodine', 13—'Mastodon Island', 14—'Witch's Quay', 15—'The Mastodon Wishes He Hadn't', 16—'Enemy's Country', 17—'A State of War', 18—'Eager Prisoner', 19—'Hot on the Trail', 20—'All's Well', 21—'Six Boats Explore', 22—'The Mastodon Gives a Party', 23—'Red Sea Crossing: Israelites', 24—'Civilisation', 25—'Sinbad's Creek', 26—'Red Sea Crossing Egyptians', 27—'Rescue and After', 28—'Corroboree', 29—'Packing Up', 30—'North West Passage' and 31—'Farewell to the Eels'.

There are forty two full page illustrations: 1—''Pudding Faces', Said Roger', 2—'Nancy's Message', 3—'The Blank Map', 4—''no Need to Envy Them Now'', 5—'On the Way to the Islander', 6—'Landing the Gear', 7—'Blue Peter at the Cross-Trees', 8—'The Map Begun', 9—'The Meal- Deal', 10—'Taking Bearings', 11—'Rough Map with Bearings', 12—''the Native Never Made Tracks Like These'', 13—'What Susan Found at the Camp', 14—'Speedy', 15—'Splatchers', 16—'The Map: With Swallow Island', 17—'The Map: With Magellan Straights and Cape Horn', 18—'Arrival of the Amazons', 19—'The Report', 20—'The Blooding', 21—'The Map: With Mastodon Island and Witch's Quay', 22—'The Eel's Letter', 23—'The Second Rocket', 24—'The Map: With Blackberry Coast and Peewitland', 25—'A Savage Watched Her', 26—'The Mission Ship Off Flint Island', 27—'Drifting Up with the Tide', 28—'George', 29—'The Map: With the Upper Waters and the Mango', 30—'Islands', 31—'Semaphore Alphabet', 32—'Crossing the Wade', 33—'Patteran', 34—'The Map: With the Road to the Town and Sinbad's', 35—'Creek', 36—'The Road Across the Red Sea: At High and Low Tide', 37—'Signal of Disstress', 38—'Putting on the War-Paint', 39—'The Eel Dance', 40—'Like Steering Through a Flooded Field', 41—'The Map Complete' and 42—'Totem at the Masthead'.