Feb
9
Swallows & Amazons Arthur Ransome Boxed Set
Posted by admin acc Comments (1)
- Arthur Ransome’s amazing adventure books
- All available in this Exclusive 12 book Box Set
- Completely unadulterated reproductions
- Reproduced with original dust jackets
- Swallows and Amazons Forever !
Product Description
Arthur Ransome’s twelve books about adventures in small wooden boats are utterly captivating: you can almost feel the breeze on your cheeks, smell the “pemmican” (corned beef) sizzling in the pan over the fire, see the sun setting over the still water. Sailing at night, roaming through the woods, camping where and when one wishes. Fictional places, but recognisably based on the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. If you read these books when you were younger, you’… More >>
Swallows & Amazons Arthur Ransome Boxed Set
Categories: Amazon
If buying this boxed set without inspecting it first, you may be disappointed at the quality of the box.
It is made of fairly thin card covered in blue paper, and is sized so that the 12 books are a snug fit – both in terms of height and thickness. As you can see from the photo, there is also no “cut out” at the ends of the box to help in withdrawing a book.
It may be that cut outs wouldn’t help much with a twelve volume set, but in any case I have found it impossible to remove a book other than by tipping the box forward so that all the books slide out under gravity. Any other attempt is likely to result in damage to the box or to at least the dust jacket of a book, as there is no room to insert a finger anywhere. As I write this I find myself devising – as no doubt would the Walker children – various contrivances to solve this particular problem, but the fact remains that the box is poor.
While it does no harm as part of the packaging, I suggest that if you are buying this set be read and re-read, especially by a child, then consider the box to be little more than a throw-away wrapper. Perhaps if you have the space you might store it away to put the books into on special occasions or something equally bizarre…..
I did have the opportunity to inspect before buying, and I bought anyway as this set still makes a lovely present – but I for one would have preferred to spend a little more and receive a sensible and sturdy box in which the books could live for years to come. Just making the box half an inch taller than the books would be a great start – yes a polystyrene packer would then have been needed for shipping, surely no big deal?
One final point, if do decide you don’t want the box, it is possible that buying the twelve books separately might be cheaper. Worth checking.
None of this detracts from the sheer excellence of the books themselves, about which so much has been written by other reviewers that there’s nothing I can possibly add.
Rating: 3 / 5