Ransome says in a note at the beginning that the stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other. It was written for English children who play in deep lanes with wild roses above them in the high hedges, or by the small singing becks that dance down the grey fells at home.

The tales include "Baba Yaga," the story of the famous witch who lived in a house that walked on chicken feet.

Ransome says in his autobiography that the English listeners know nothing of the world that in Russia listeners and storytellers take for granted. So rather than direct translation he read all the variants of the story and rewrote them with Old Peter, Vanya and Maroosia rather than the Ogre, the Elf and the Imp.

Author: Arthur Ransome
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Aegypan
Published: 09/01/2007
Pages: 180
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.33w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781603127394
Audience: 01 - 12

About the Author
Ransome, Arthur: - "Arthur Michell Ransome (1884 - 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; fishing and camping are other common subjects. The books remain popular and Swallows and Amazons is the basis for a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water, the two lakes Ransome adapted as his fictional North Country lake. He also wrote about the literary life of London and about Russia before, during and after the revolutions of 1917."