Stuk 177 - Letter from Arthur Ransome to R. C. Trevelyan

Harkstead Hall, near Ipswich, Suffolk. - Trevelyan has 'a very kind heart' which keeps him from seeing all that is wrong with "Secret Water"; agrees that the characters of the children are not errors, and will not 'turn them into nasty little beasts to please reviewers'. Should have kept the book another year and rewritten, but dared not, so had to finish in the midst of 'the whole horror of the evacuees' which came just as they had moved due to noise at the old house. Has started another and hopes to make it better; it is certainly different and in some ways 'larkier', but he is as usual panicking about whether it will be done by August. Originally enclosing a pamphlet which will not interest Trevelyan if he is lucky. Asks if he likes little pigs: there are nearly forty here, dashing about 'like quicksilver'; he has tried to draw or photograph them, but 'they're worse than long-tailed tits'. Wishes Trevelyan had written a poem on the subject.