Bristol Old VicIt is a nice irony that the author of one of the most impeccably middle class of all children's books was a one-time Bolshevik sympathiser as well as the Manchester Guardian's man in Moscow. But, for all the piquancy of its origins, Arthur Ransome's 1930 novel was never part of my own childhood landscape; so, coming to this new musical version relatively fresh, I was pleasantly surprised, if not by the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30PM on December 8, 2010