Yorkshire well-known author was children's writer Arthur Ransome, who penned the "Swallows and Amazons" series. James Herriot, the best selling author of over 60 million copies of books about his experiences of some 50 years as a veterinarian in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, the town which he refers to as Darrowby in his books (although born in Sunderland), has been admired for his easy reading style and interesting characters. Poets include Ted Hughes, W. H. Auden, William Empson, Simon Armitage and Andrew Marvell. Three well known sculptors emerged in the 20th century; contemporaries Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, and Leeds-raised eco artist
Nancy Blackett chance, being so much dominated by Nancy". When Ransome was first writing "Swallows and Amazons" in 1928, it was unusual for a female character to display such active leadership over males as Nancy Blackett does in the whole series of books and whilst children in children's literature had become increasingly self-motivated towards the end of the 19th century, they were, until Swallows and Amazons, still largely bounded by a "closed nursery-orientated world". In "Secret Water", Daisy the leader of the "Eels" is their leader, although younger than her brothers Dum and Dee. Nevertheless, despite writing Nancy in an unconventional role,