M. Helen Graham (1912–2004)

... An engaging, because cheerful, hard-upness spices the whole adventure, and will endear the book to many of us who would be much less interested to read of the voyages of ships with rich owners who fit out with the best of everything. Commander Graham, like you or me, makes old ropes, old sails, old stores do what he can. Emanuel, like many a thousand little boats all round our coasts, has to put up with what her owner can at the moment afford. It is, perhaps, this that makes it so easy show more to feel that we all have a share in her. Her skipper say he writes his book in the hope that it will contribute to fitting her for the next voyage. I shall be surprised if it does not do a great deal more tha that. ...

[Arthur Ransome in The Observer, 19 April 1936; reproduced in Christina Hardyment, Ransome on blue water sailing, pp. 75-76]. show less