AMAZONIA is the story of Arthur Ransome’s dramatic sojourn in Russia, years before he found fame as a children’s writer with Swallows and Amazons. Reporting for the Daily News from the Russian Front during the First World War, Ransome found himself swept up in the extraordinary events of the Bolshevik Revolution. Useful to both sides, he began a dangerous double life as journalist and agent for the Bolsheviks and M15. War, revolution, espionage and love feature in a biographical portrait of a man more commonly associated with childhood adventure fantasies and English holiday idylls. You can hear an extract here: