Arthur Ransome (1884-1967) spent many of his childhood holidays in the Lake District. After spending some years as a journalist, he visited Russia and became sympathetic to the cause of Leon Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. When he returned to England, he published a collection of 21 folk tales called Old Peter's Russian Tales, then embarked on a series of children's books known as the Swallows and Amazons series, based on children's holiday adventures in the Lake District. These became classics during his lifetime, and he received many awards for them, including the very first Carnegie Medal in 1936 for Pigeon Post. Tom Bower studied art at the Central School of Art and Design and at Hornsey College of Art. He has taught technology and art in Oxfordshire for over 20 years and runs sculpture workshops. He has also exhibited his paintings and designed CD covers and theatre and film sets. As a musician, he plays everything from guitar and dulcimer to pipe, tabor, tin whistle and bouzouki, and has made six CDs with the band Magpie Lane. In 1991 he wrote and illustrated Albert Blows a Fuse (Lion).