Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and went to school at Rugby. He was in Russia in 1917, and witnessed the Revolution, which he reported for the Manchester Guardian. After escaping to Scandinavia, he settled in the Lake District with his Russian wife where, in 1929, he wrote Swallows and Amazons; so began a writing career which has produced some of the best children's treasures of all time. In 1936 he won the first ever Carnegie Medal for his book, Pigeon Post.