18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adventures in pre-communist China, 27 Mar 2001
Once again Arthur Ransome comes up with a grand adventure for the children he introduced in his earlier books. This time they are sailing a small schooner through little-charted waters in the China Sea. After a disastrous fire on board, they are washed ashore, along with Captain Flint (Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim if you are not familiar with these books) on a small chain of islands, and captured by Chinese pirates. Those over-sensitive souls among us may find the depiction of Chinese natives, and the rendition of their accents, less than PC, but I read this book for the first time at the impressionable age of nine and I don't think it coloured my attitude to Chinese people in any negative way. What this books does, as superbly as all Mr Ransome's others, is convey the excitement that children feel if they are allowed a little freedom. Our poor children today, molly-coddled and over-protected by our anxious selves can only dream of adventures such as these. Luckily, they have books like this to transport them to such faraway places where we, as parents, cannot interfere.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's real Chinese pirates this time for the Swalows & Amazon, 3 Nov 2001
In this sequel to Peter Duck,the Swallows & Amazons lose their ship in the South China Seas. When they reach land they make friends with some local pirates. Their leader is the Cambridge University educated female Pirate Missee Lee herself.
She is hospitible and even gives them their own house. But when it comes to leaving she will not let them go.
Finally there is a daring escape bid that will make it impossible for you to put the book down.
Amazing description and colourful characters, aided by the simple but charming line drawings, typical of the author, make this book that little bit more special.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amo, Amas, Amat: you cannot help but love this, 13 April 2011
We know from references in other books in the series that the events of 'Peter Duck' didn't happen within the fictional lives of Ransome's heroes; rather, it's a metafiction - a narrative that they composed together in the cabin of an old wherry over the course of a winter holiday. There's no such intertextual reference to Missee Lee in the canonical stories, but nevertheless we know it is a sequel to Peter Duck. We know this because we find our heroes on the same little schooner that Peter Duck had helped them sail before.
So we know from the start that Missee Lee is also a metafiction, or rather, a metafantasy: a fantasy of a China which never existed but which, one cannot help thinking, should have.
Missee Lee is the most sustained comedy in Ransome's oeuvre. The first chapter gives us none of this: it's a rattling good yarn in the best tradition of rattling good yarns. But as soon as our heroes get ashore and meet the eponymous pirate queen, a twist no-one would have predicted takes the plot by the tail. Roger is discovered to have just one unique talent - a talent which none of the others had ever thought might come in useful; and throughout the delightful romp which follows, this unlikely talent is the one thing which saves everyone's life.
In summary, this isn't a 'Swallows and Amazons' tale like any other. It stands alone. It's more exotic, funnier, odder, and ultimately more poignant. But it is probably some of Ransome's finest story telling, and certainly his finest writing. And although aimed at a teen audience, this really is a story to delight any reader.
Read it, as they say, and weep - but weep from laughing.
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