The Picts and the Martyrs they can be questioned, and Nancy manages to save the Great Aunt some embarrassment for which she gets praised in a letter to her mother. Ransome's wife Evgenia hated the book while it was being written, but his mother Edith persuaded him to publish it. Genia was often discouraging about his books while he was writing them. The Picts and the Martyrs The Picts and the Martyrs is the eleventh book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1943. This is the last completed book set in the Lake District and features the
Michael Irwin (author) wrote the lyrics for Brunel (opera project) and other original musical works. In 2013 he wrote a novel, "The Skull and the Nightingale", which has received a number of positive reviews. Fiction: Non-fiction: Irwin has four children, a daughter from his first marriage to Donia Etherington, and two daughters and a son with his wife Stella. The couple lives in Canterbury, Kent. Michael Irwin (author) Thomas Arthur Michael Irwin, (born 3 May 1934) is a British Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Kent and author of several works of fiction, as well as scholarly books. His 2013 novel,