Julia Jones discusses Good Little Ship; Arthur Ransome, Nancy Blackett and the Goblin by Peter Willis.
When I first reviewed Peter Willis’ biography of Arthur Ransome’s Nancy Blackett on its publication in 2017, I had enjoyed it far more than I’d necessarily expected.
Nancy Blackett is a yacht I feel I know well as she’s a close friend of my own Peter Duck.
Peter Duck and I have attended several of her AGMs and other events together and I wasn’t certain that Good Little Ship would tell me anything I didn’t already know.
Or perhaps I thought it might overstate Nancy’s virtue and significance.
I was wrong on both counts: the pleasure of a well-written, well-organised sailing book (which this is) is to bring a knowledge into a clearer perspective, to articulate half-remembered fragments and arrange them into a new whole – thus making the case, without fuss, for the value of the subject.
I was immediately impressed by the way in which Peter Willis brings together different aspects of the Nancy story.
For the full story, see: https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/gear/good-little-ship-arthur-ransome-nancy-blackett-and-the-goblin-book-review-80562
