W. H. Johnston

Lillibullero, if she exists, is a small yacht of the type of the Boston shrimpers. ... This book is a delightful account of how the thing might be done, and, indeed, may have been done - the vain search for a secondhand boat, the picking up secondhand of ports and blocks, the devising of one gadget after another, and the necessary dealings with the men whose characters seem to have caught the sterling quality of the tough woods and stout canvas in which they work. Mr Johnson set out to show 'that yachting was a cheaper amusement than motoring,' but his relish for character and the power of his suggesting it enabled him to produce a book that is very good fun for its own sake.

[Arthur Ransome in The Manchester Guardian, 1 April 1935; reproduced in Christina Hardyment, Ransome on blue water sailing, p. 71].… (plus d'informations)