We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome, First Paperback Edition

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

Puffin books—The children's imprint of Penguin Books, which since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the world.

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)'

John, Susan, Titty and Roger (and Sinbad the Kitten) find themselves alone, fighting a night gale in the treacherous waters of the North Sea on the tiny yacht the Goblin.

There are twenty seven chapters: 1—'A Bowline Knot', 2—'Sleepy Skipper', 3—''We've All Promised '', 4—'Down the River', 5—'Sleeping Afloat', 6—''Nothing Can Possibly Happen'', 7—''He's Been an Awful Long Time…'', 8—'The Beach End Buoy', 9—'Drifting Blind', 10—'Out to Sea', 11—'Whose Fault Now?', 12—'A Cure for Sea Sickness', 13—'Wooolworth Plate', 14—'At Pin Mill', 15—'Keeping Awake', 16—'Dawn at Sea', 17—'Shipwrecked Sailor', 18—'Land Ho! What Land?', 19—'Signal for a Pilot', 20—'Grown-Up Noises Below', 21—'Surprises All Around', 22—'In a Foreign Port', 23—'Dutch Afternoon', 24—'Happier Voyage', 25—'Lost! Two Days and a Boat', 26—'Nothing to Declare' and 27—'Coil Down'.

Full page illustrations include : 'Landing on the Hard', 'Among the Moored Yachts', 'The 'Butt and Oyster' And Alma Cottage', ''SH SH!', 'First Aid', 'Chart of Approaches to Harwich', 'Harwich Looked Like an Island', 'Shotley Pier', 'Inside the Goblin', 'Morning Dip', 'Jim Rowed Away', 'Goodbye to Anchor and Chain!', 'The Beach End Buoy', 'Fending Off with the Mop', 'Points of the Compass', 'All But O.B', 'Night Encounter', 'Pin Mill', 'Lightship at Night', 'The Loom of a Lighthouse', 'Cooking and Steering', 'Rescue at Sea', 'On the Cross -Trees', 'Signal for a Pilot', 'Ahoy! Ahoy!', 'What They Saw Through the Portholes (I).', 'What They Saw Through the Portholes (Ii)', 'In the Lock at Flushing', 'Tied Up in Harbour', 'The Milk - Cart', 'Meeting the Sailing Ship', 'Entrance to Harwich' and 'Turbaned Native'.