We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome

I didn't like this as much as the others in the series so far, mostly because there is too much technical sailing jargon and discussion of sandbanks to really grab me, as a non-sailor.

Basically the action moves from the Lake District to the east coast - Harwich to be exact. The Walker children meet a young boat skipper, Jim, and (after their mother has checked his background) they're allowed to spend the night on his boat, the Goblin, as long as they remain in the harbour.

The title is a bit of a giveaway, and the tale is of what happens when the Walker children, without Jim for reasons that only become apparent right at the end of the novel and against their wishes, cross the North Sea to Holland.

Reading this now it's really very difficult to shut up the "it's PC Gone Mad" inner Daily Mail reader in you: these days Mrs Walker would have the Police after Jim for being a potential child-snatching paedophile, they would have been arrested for stealing the boat and as suspected illegal immigrants on arrival in Holland, and again on their re-arrival in England. There's the animal smuggling charge to be levelled against them too. The children would probably sue Jim for damages for the trauma they have suffered during the unwanted voyage.

But even so. It's a ripping yarn and I thoroughly enjoyed it.