We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome
Arthur Ransome breaks so many rules – and brilliantly. If you are not a sailor you find the book littered with terms you don’t know, many unexplained, detailed descriptions of estuaries and compass bearings, children who much of the time seem to have little inner life, a title that reveals the whole plot; and yet, here is a tale that is exciting, convincing and moves me anyway to tears.
The illustrations are his own and he is clearly no artist. But they give a clue: they are completely sincere. He really knows what it is like to sail in a storm at night and he makes you feel you know too. More than that he really knows what it is like to long for your father’s approval, as John does, or to feel desperate because you have broken a promise to your mother, as Susan does. And he communicates it. Somehow what often looks a bit like they did this then they did that, accumulates to create a vivid reality in which the reader cares deeply about these four children.
There’s a great artfulness behind the apparent bluff straightforwardness. It doesn’t undermine his sincerity, which is absolute, but he studied how to tell a tale. In assuming on the reader’s knowledge he give a great gift. He believes in your competence, and his belief is transmitted to the reader. Simultaneously, you find yourself thinking, I could never do that, and then, but I am doing it.
