The full extent of the influence of Arthur Ransome's wife on both his work and his life was revealed for the first time by Professor Ted Evans in his April lecture to the Woodbridge Society. Evans said that his searches of the author's archive showed that Evgenia Ransome had exerted a much greater influence than had hitherto been recognised.

Ransome had met Trotsky's secretary, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, in St Petersburg during the Russian revolution. He was working there as Manchester Guardian correspondent in St Petersburg, and there is some evidence that he was also working for British Intelligence. They were married in 1924 and eventually settled in the Lake District, where Evans said they lived in "extreme poverty and hardship" with Evgenia eking out their slender resources to enable Ransome to write.

During their married life Ransome was plagued by ill health, but with Evgenia's care he lived to 83, dying in 1967. However, he had stopped writing children's books in 1948, and Evans said this was because he lost confidence in the face of Evgenia's constant severe criticism of his work. For instance, she said of 'We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea’, which many believe was his best book, that it was "flat, not interesting, not amusing, there was no dialogue, it was only a skeleton". In the end, said Evans, the publishers kept the first drafts away from her as much as they could.

Evgenia was also severely critical of a succession of Ransome’s yachts, and when he agreed to sell them she insisted on having a hand in the interior design of their replacements, especially their galleys. What is more, Evans revealed, Evgenia was not slow to express her views on how Ransome should sail their boats.

None of this should detract from the positive role Evgenia played in Ransome's life, said Evans. Ransome had written in his autobiography of his "30 years of unclouded happiness" with Evgenia, and said that "but for her I should have been dead and unable to write this book".

Evans pointed out the strong connection with the East Coast. Ransome had lived in Levington and then Harkstead in the 1930s, and as many of his books were set at least initially in this region as in the Lake District. Indeed, there might have been an even stronger connection if Evgenia had not decided in 1945 that she could not take to living in Woodbridge.

However, there is one solid link with the town. The only three of Ransome's boats still sailing, Nancy Blackett, Peter Duck and Lottie Blossom (now called Ragged Robin and owned by Evans) can be seen on the Deben, and Evans puts this down to the fact that Woodbridge has so many boat yards skilled in looking after traditional wooden boats.

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Contact Professor Evans on 01986798338