Last englishman, paperback/roland chambers

A revelatory and often chilling examination of an English icon, and his controversial Soviet double life.

Arthur Ransome was the J.

Rowling of his day, author of a series of childrens books that shaped the imaginations of a generation.

But before that, he was an uncritical apologist for the Bolshevik regime, conducting a love affair with Leon Trotskys private secretary, and comparing Lenin to Oliver Cromwell.

At Whitehall, he was accused of being an agent of a hostile nation, and only narrowly escaped prosecution for treason.