I felt very fortunate to stumble across these two lovely editions of Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome in a local charity shop.

Penguin Vintage Classics produce books of real joy to me, they have breathed new life into some of the great titles of the last century with irresistible cover art and this edition of Swallows and Amazons is no exception. First published by Vintage in 2012 it contains all of the original illustrations by the author and Nancy Blackett with a striking cover by Pietari Posti.

This edition of Swallowdale was published by Random House/Red Fox in 2013 and once again features the full illustrations by Ransome. These books need no introduction or review, reading them brings back memories of a simpler and more innocent childhood too many children today have been robbed of.

Penguin have been particularly good at these reissues, the Modern Classics titles are sublime, see Len Deighton, John Le Carré, Richard Yates and John Steinbeck as examples of collections given a ‘modern-vintage’ feel.

I have long bemoaned the dreadful ‘fashion’ of book covers from the late 1960s onwards with the photographer replacing the artist which signalled the death of the wonderful Collins Crime Club covers in particular. These reissues do much to redress the balance and kudos to Penguin and others for seeing the value in a cool cover to attract new and repeat readers.