WHEN it comes to cloak-and-dagger suspense or life and death cliffhangers, it makes the antics of James Bond seem rather dull.
Yorkshire-born author Arthur Ransome may forever be remembered for his classic stories of children playing pirates in a sailing boat, but his genteel tales of a bygone age are a world away from the astonishing life he led.
For many people, the name of the man responsible for Swallows and Amazons and Coot Club probably conjures up an image of a tweed-clad gentleman who enjoyed outdoor pursuits, but the reality is somewhat different.
Ransome was an intellectual with a profound sense of duty, who witnessed at first hand the 1917 October Revolution, embarked on a passionate affair with Leon Trotsky's secretary and was later arrested by Scotland Yard on suspicion of treason. Not the kind of existence you might associate with a children's author.
Ransome's involvement with the 1917 revolution has long been the subject of speculation, something that reached fever pitch in March when National Archive records, made public for the first time, revealed he passed important information about the Bolshevik regime to MI6 and the Foreign Office.
It reopened the debate as to whether or not he was a spy and, if so, whose side was he on? When these documents were made public, comedian and self-confessed bookworm Griff Rhys Jones was already working on a TV documentary examining the author's secret life. For Jones it was a journey that took him on a labyrinthine trail into the shadows of a revolution that would change the face of history.
"It started for me because he has run through my life," says Jones.
"My father had a boat he took me in as a boy and I was introduced to all the Arthur Ransome books.
"And later I bought a house in Suffolk and was living only a few yards from where he once lived, so there has always been this fascination with him."
It was only after reading his biography, though, that Jones realized how incredible his life had been.
"It was an extraordinary, here was a man with a great intellect, but with an equally child-like quality who was also very brave."
Ransome was born in Headingley, Leeds, into an upper-class family.
But, although his father was a history professor, the young Ransome was a reluctant student – he studied science at Yorkshire College (which became Leeds University) but left before completing his degree.
In 1913, having already published several biographies, he left his wife and young daughter and travelled to Russia to write fairytales.
When war broke out a year later, Ransome was recruited by the Daily News to report on the Eastern Front. At this time, Tsarist Russia was crumbling and the wheels of revolution were moving inexorably forward, and Ransome found himself at its epicentre.
From his St Petersburg apartment, he watched the opening salvos in the main square below.
It was another chance encounter that was to change his life completely.
Every war correspondent's stories had to be cleared by government censors before being dispatched, and on one occasion, a woman spotted Ransome waiting in a corridor and led him by the hand to an office where his report was promptly given the all-clear.
The woman's name was Evgenia Shelepin, she was a Bolshevik supporter and personal secretary of Leon Trotsky, Lenin's second-in-command.
The couple began an affair and Ransome was introduced to the Bolshevik leaders who were keen to use his contacts in the west to promote their cause.
Back in England, Ransome's activities had come to the attention of MI6 and the Foreign Office, and some people claimed he was a Bolshevik spy who should be charged with high treason.
In 1919, Ransome returned to England but he had barely stepped off the train at Kings Cross when he was whisked off to be interrogated by the head of Special Branch, Sir Basil Thomson.
Ransome was unperturbed and convinced Thomson of his innocence and promptly went to the Foreign Office building across the street where he told officials about what was happening in Russia.
There is no doubt that Ransome was a British agent – he even had his own codename (S 76) – but he wasn't an undercover spy.
Although he sympathised with the Bolshevik cause, it is also inconceivable, given his strong sense of patriotism, that he was a double agent.
Having convinced the authorities that he wasn't a Bolshevik, Ransome was eager to return to Russia to be re-united with Evgenia, with whom he had fallen in love.
The Manchester Guardian offered him a route back, by making him one of its war correspondents.
By now, though, Russia was in the grip of a brutal civil war between the fledgling Red Army and the White Army, made up of Tsarist sympathisers and backed by western money and armour.
Ransome arrived in Estonia, which was seeking independence from Russia, and offered to help broker a deal, through his Bolshevik contacts.
The Bolsheviks, who were now suspicious of Ransome themselves, dismissed the offer, but Ransome was determined to get Evgenia out of Russia and decided to head for Moscow. It was a perilous gamble.
He had no official papers and had to cross the front line and hope he would not be shot.
Armed with his typewriter and pipe, he was picked up by a group of Bolshevik soldiers who were going to shoot him until he convinced them he was on a vital mission, reminding them of the likely consequences if they shot the wrong person.
He finally reached Moscow and was granted a meeting with Lenin, who agreed to a peace deal with Estonia and allowed Ransome and Evgenia to leave. It is this that Jones finds most puzzling.
"Why did Lenin – a man who believed that friendship was a bourgeoise trait – why did he allow these two lovebirds to escape?"
Not that their escape was straightforward. On their way back they were stopped by a group of White Army cavalry whose officer recognised Ransome.
The pair had met on the Eastern Front and the young officer insisted he and Ransome play a game of chess for old times' sake. Had they known who Evgenia was, or that Ransome was helping to broker a peace deal between Lenin and the Estonian leaders, they would have been executed on the spot.
Instead they were escorted back to Tallinn before finally making their way back to England.
By any standards, this period of Ransome's life was remarkable, yet strangely, it was something he played down.
"What's interesting in his autobiography is Arthur Ransome plays down the events of 1919, because it was an extraordinary period of his life.
"And this intrigued me given that he was an adventure writer, it made me question why he hadn't made more of this?", says Jones.
"I think the answer is to do with his wife's relatives who were still living in Russia, because she had stressed the fact that she had not escaped from the Bolsheviks."
Ransome deliberately distanced himself and Evgenia from the revolution in order to protect her family, for had she remained in Russia under Stalin's rule, she would have almost certainly been killed, along with many of the original Bolshevik leaders.
Having been granted a divorce from his first wife, he married Evgenia in 1924, and the couple moved to the Lake District where Ransome continued writing.
"People tend to be a bit dismissive of Arthur Ransome because he was middle class, but he was an incredibly interesting man and his books were hugely popular.
"They were also fantastically well-written and I think all that he ever really wanted to do was write children's books," Jones says.
chris.bond@ypn.co.uk
The Secret Life of Arthur Ransome, BBC2, Saturday, 9.10pm.