The Picts and the Martyrs or Not Welcome at All 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)'

The terrible Great Aunt invites herself to stay with Nancy and Peggy, just as the D.s arrive for the Summer holiday. The D.s attempt to avoid discovery by the Great Aunt, while Peggy and Nancy pretend to be the perfect nieces. The last of the books based in the lakes.

There are thirty chapters: 1—'Visitors Expected', 2—'The Visitors Arrive', 3—'Out of the Blue', 4—'The Dog's Home', 5—'Transformation Scenes', 6—''She's Here!'', 7—'Secondhand News', 8—'Dealing with the Doctor', 9—'Harbour for Scarab', 10—'Pigeons for Timothy', 11—'A Better Pict Than Either of Us', 12—'A Signal From the Lawn', 13—'Tickling Trout', 14—''They Can't Be Going to Sail…'', 15—'Launching the Scarab', 16—'On Their Own', 17—'Waiting for the Message', 18—'Visiting Seal', 19—''We've Never Been Burglars Before'', 20—'Police!', 21—'As Others See Us', 22—'Plans and Change of Plans', 23—'The Great Aunt Goes to See for Herself', 24—'Care-Free Holiday', 25—'Totally Disappeared', 26—'The Hunt is Up', 27—'The One Thing That Mustn't Happen', 28—'Three in a Boat', 29—'Great Aunt Maria Faces Her Pursuers' and 30—'Reward of Virtue'.

There are twenty illustrations: 'The Picts at Home', 'Not What I Call Homely', 'A Great Improvement in the House', 'It Hasn't Tumbled Down Yet', 'Moving House', 'Map', 'Wet Work in the Loagoon', 'Not Looking at All Like Going', 'Look Out Post on the Ridge', 'Feeling for a Trout', 'Scarab', 'How Not to Lower Sail', 'Wet and Piebald in the Doorway', 'Getting In', 'Work in the Houseboat', 'Their Own Mine', 'At the Beckfoot Gate', 'They Were Startled by a Splash', 'It Acts As an Extra Sail' and 'The Great Aunt Steps Ashore'.