The other group of children that Arthur Ransome created, the Death or Glories and Tom Dudgeon, Port and Starboard, collectively known as the Coot Club are here embroiled in another adventure. Accompanied by the Ds, whom avid readers will know from earlier AR books, they turn detective and track down the villians who are casting off boats on the Norfolk Broads. As usual Arthur Ransome was writing in a class of his own. A note of caution: don't imagine that Norfolk and the surrounding countryside, especially Lowestoft, bears any resemblance to the places described in these books. The last two thirds of the 20th century were not kind to our poor old country and nowhere is this more starkly illustrated than in our seaside towns. Read the book instead and dream of life before the car was king.

"Big Six" is Arthur Ransome's ninth book in the Swallows and Amazons series. It features neither Swallows nor Amazons but rather follows once more the adventures of the two D's and their friends of the Coot Club on the Norfolk Broads. In this story, some members of the Coot Club happen to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly find themselves accused of certain misdeeds. Unfortunately, the allegations hanging over them are serious enough to threaten the very future of the club unless the true miscreants can be discovered and exposed. So, rather than spending their time sailing or engaged in acts of bird preservation, the Coot Club has no choice but to turn into a detective agency instead, determined to clear the name and restore the reputations of their friends.

The central plot aside, Ransome still finds ways within this story to involve the children in many typical pre-war Norfolk Broads' activities and introduce us to some wonderful Norfolk characters. Indeed, throughout this book, he manages to paint a vivid picture of life on the Broads in a by-gone era; all using language and a writing style that should appeal to both children and grown-ups alike. As usual, the story is presented with intelligence, charm and wit, as well as with an overriding humility and an obvious love for the places and people of whom he writes.

Some episodes in this book (especially the smoking of the eels) will have most adults crying with laughter, while for the majority of younger readers the excitement of the detective story will undoubtedly be the overridingly memorable element. Ultimately, though, it is the author's heart-warming respect for children and the way they see the world around them that shines through and makes this book so enjoyable for readers of all ages.

Ransome has done it again, doing a fabulous job of describing the escapades of the ship Swallow and the ship Amazon. I recommend this book to all those in love with the sea, or in love with a good story!

In 1955, photographer Winston Link took note of the disappearance of the steam locomotive from the American scene, and he decided to take quality photos of the last steam railroad left, the Norfolk and Western Railway. Over a period of several years, he took a series of excellent pictures of steam trains in motion. In the beginning, Mr. Link's idea was to take black-and-white photos of locomotives at night, but later he expanded this to trains operating during the day, and he even took some color photos.

This is an excellent book, if you like steam locomotives. In particular the color photos are breathtaking. My favorites were those of the streamlined J class. Great book!

This book not only depicts outstanding photography, but helps one to understand something about the author and the people involved with the railroad and surrounding communities. Some of the color photographs are more like paintings than photographs.

This might be the finest book I have ever read on the subjects of B&W photography, steam railroading and the history of a railroad . The photographs are excellent and the descriptions of the technique used to create them is first rate. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to remeber the days of the great steam locomotive and a time in America that, unfortunately, is long gone.

I thank the authors, Thomas and Phyllis for this great book. Because of this book, I was able to connect my gr grandmother Lillian May (Ryerse) Fergus and the rest of her family. I now know a little more of who I am and where my ancestors came from. The book is very interesting to read and has made me very proud of my Ryerse ancestors. I would recommend this book to anyone they definitely will not be sorry. Thanks again Thomas and Phyllis.
George C. Olson, Jr.

Tom Ryerson & Phyllis Ryerse have made family history come alive with this extraordinary book. Not only has their painstaking research paid off in an easy-to-follow genealogy of the Ryerse-Ryerson Family, but this book should serve as a model for all those interested in chronicling their family history. The Ryerse-Ryerson Family tells the 400-year history of one of the oldest Dutch families to settle in the US using rich text, pictures and maps. Far from the dry recitation of facts found in many books of this ilk, Tom and Phyllis have written a book that is both informative and entertaining. For all genealogy or history buffs, this book is a "must read"!

I was never so happy to receive a book, as this one. Through all the hard work and many years of reseach, the authors, Thomas Ryerse and Phyllis Ryerson, connected the rest of my family line with my 4th great grandmother, Eleanor Augusta Ryerse. The book is wonderful, with pictures of family, maps, headstones, stories of the past telling how life was for them. Makes your family come alive again. I rate this book five stars! Debbie Dixon Cade

This book kept me transfixed from the moment I picked it up. The first section's epic poem lays the framework for figuring out the rest of the story, which is riveting.

I can't wait for Norfolk's next one.

This is a Very Serious Work, one that cannot be read (or summarized) quickly without doing it an injustice. A newly created, "classical" epic for the first hundred pages, it has larger than life heroes from Greek mythology fighting great, ancient battles in which the survival of a culture is at stake. King Meleager of Kalydon, the lone huntress Atalanta, her dog Aura, and her cousin Meilanion are, with sixty other hunters, trying to conquer a ferocious boar unleashed upon the country by the angry goddess Artemis. As the other hunters fall prey to jealousies, duplicities, and betrayals, these three alone face the final battle, the outcome of which is never clear.

The rest of the book tells parallel stories from three 20th century time frames, involving modern characters whose lives involve similar battles with "the boar" and what it represents. Solomon Memel, Ruth Lackner, and Jakob Feuerstein are teenage friends in Romania in 1938, when the Russians and, soon afterward, the Nazis, occupy the country, create ghettos, and bring the Holocaust. In 1952, Solomon publishes a poem, "Die Keilerjagd," in which he describes his World War II experiences with partisans in Greece, paralleling the boar hunt of the ancient heroes, as they chase a Nazi field commander through the same mountains in the war's waning days. Some years later, when Sol is 49 and a heroic icon to schoolchildren, Ruth, a successful theater figure, decides to make a film of his poem and experiences, and the accuracy of his poem and memory are challenged publicly. Sol's battles to fill the gaps in his memory and to recall uncertain events represent yet another battle with the boar.

Time is flexible here, filtered through the consciousness of Sol, as memories from all three time periods crowd his life in no particular order, and he recollects one event after another, perhaps imperfectly. Norfolk does not always dot all the I's and cross all the T's as Sol tells his story, requiring the reader to bring his/her own consciousness to the interpretation of events, and, like Sol, to keep an open mind to alternative interpretations. His concern with myths, both ancient and modern, how they are created, what they reveal about human needs, how they reflect reality, and why they are perpetuated give tremendous impact and broad scope to his several stories. The hypnotic, musical cadences and the elaborate, minutely detailed descriptions lend a weightiness appropriate to an epic. The action is intense, the themes are universal, and the scope of the author's vision seems almost limitless. This is a slow, but ultimately rewarding, reading experience, sometimes requiring the reader to fight his/her own battle with the boar.

Very usable in it's small page spiral format. Flipping pages as one cruises north or south is easy, and takes very little space at the helm. The annotations indicating marina locations save looking in separate guides when a stopping point is desired. Some obvious side trips (e.g. Banana River) are omitted and would have helped increase usefulness if included.

The charts are well organized and very reliable. Only a minimum number of aids were missing or changed in number. Some of the bridge info is a little dated but generally did not cause any navigational problems.

It's hard to imagine how much work went into the research of this book. To find the details and documentation is mind consuming. The story puts flesh and blood onto a part of history that was forgotten and lived only in bits and pieces. Truly the work of a dedicated individual.

Shadrach who?? This book provides amazing insight into the experiences of an unlikely hero whose story should be taught in grade school. A terrific amount of information condensed into a readable, enjoyable package--I can not imagine how difficult it must have been for the author to gather such little-known information. I only regret that I hadn't known the book or its main character years ago.

I highly recommend this book as a follow-up to Hens Dancing (see my longer review under that book).

I read this book in 2 days, and wish it took longer because I didn't want it to end! The story revolves around diary entries made by a single mother named Venetia living in Norfolk England with her three children two boys 9& 10--Giles and Felix, and a three year old girl that the author refers to only as The Beauty. Venetia is supported by a fun cast of wacky characters, from her flower power sixties mother to her lovestruck brother I just opened this book and wanted to be part of their world. What I really enjoyed about this book was that they left in all the british words for things, like nappies (diapers) and instead of darn it she would say bugger...etc. For an anglophile like myself I loved that. If you like Bridget Jones's Diary your sure to like Summertime, though it is not a knock-off, but a completely authentic work in its own right. As soon as I finished the book I found out there was a previous book by Mrs. Barker called Hens Dancing, which also features Venetia and the same cast of characters. Just ordered it, and I can't wait for it to arrive!

I didn't know much about the naval history of Hampton Roads until I picked up a copy of Alan Flanders's Bluejackets on the Elizabeth! He writes with the right amount of historiography-
the facts are there-but he also writes it in a very entertaining style. You literally fly along once you start and go back to the colonial era and the first development of Norfolk and Portsmouth as colonial ports. But Flanders takes you through the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War of 1845, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, Cold War and even gets you to the latest war on Terrorism all within the scope of maritime lore within Hampton Roads. I really recommend this book for both the serious student and someone who wants something entertaining and fun. I learned a lot about Norfolk and Portsmouth. Bluejackets made me want to learn more and more. Charles Recter, Ph.D.

Townsend Warner started this novel with the intention of producing a Marxist-Leninist account of how a community of women made their living in the medieval period. That probably sounds deadly dull, but the book itself is anything but: indeed, it remains one of the most page-turning novels I've read in years. Detailing the lives of a convent through eighty years in the Middle Ages, THE CORNER THAT HELD THEM defies any simple explanation of its plot: nuns come and they leave; mothers superior replace their predecessors and then make new plans for the community (which often come to fruition and often don't); people affiliated with the community are born and then later die. Yet despite its apparent random nature, this remains one of the most engrossing books I can imagine: from its beginnings in disastrous marital infidelity to its unforgettable conclusion of desperate betrayal, it has all the fascination of real lived experience.

This book's aim is to search out the early beginnings of agrarian capitalism in England. In particular, the book focuses on the transition from a rural, peasant society based on subsistence-oriented agriculture to a market-dependent economy.

By looking particularly at the period from the end of serfdom in England to the dispossession of the majority of the English population from the land, this historical review of the rural economy falls into both the late Medieval and early Modern periods of history.

The book takes a detailed look at one village in northeast Norfolk - Marsham - and the primary manor in the village - that of Hevingham Bishops. The manorial rolls of this manor are compared to its neighboring manors for details about tenure and transfer of land. In addition, surviving wills & parish registers from Marsham and several additional parishes are reviewed to determine family relationships, inheritance strategies, and information on landless families. Finally, tax assessments, quarter session rolls, and church warden accounts are used to provide information about wealth distribution and wage labor rates.

By studying the local data within the limits of the time boundaries mentioned in the title and the specific region described above, the author provides a fascinating look at economic life of that particular area of Norfolk.

This book contains many interesting insights into the lives of this rural population. The market for land bought and sold between tenants was active from the earliest period. The annual "hiring fairs" for agricultural and domestic servants were not common in the period - hiring being done throughout the year. Different villages benefited from the Worsted trade in differing degrees. There is much more.

A truly fascinating economic micro-study of one part of Norfolk's amazing history.