Book Review: The Pirates! In an adventure with Scientists

Arrrrrrhhh me hearties!!!

Yeh have heard me tell of yon Pirate Captain, arrrahhh! that yeh have! Here he be in print, shiver my timbers, aye, timber, that is where paper comes from, that it does!!

This be the yarn of the Pirate Captain and his adventures with that scurvy crew of his (alas, a little more lime and there'd a few more of 'em left alive, poor souls).

There's be much tales of ham, puking, walking the plank, fair wenches, scientists, sailing the seven seas, wondering what the seven seas are, arrhhh, that there be.

Of course there be high adventure, battling that double crossing son of a gun Black Bellamy and that land lubber, the evil Bishop of Oxford, arrhhh! So listen up good, Jim me lad!

Two cutlasses up for this pieces of eight filled treasure story!!

And ye salty son's of Neptune, remember - if in doubt, do what the Pirate Captain does, and end every conversation with an arrrahh!

Aarrrrrrh!!!!


Picture from: Amazon

Book Review: London Under

Opening a new Peter Ackroyd is a bit like cutting the foil on a bottle of vintage port. There's the thrill of anticipation, reading the short paragraphs on the outside with an approving nod before finding a cosy chair to relish its smooth joys.

And it doesn't disappoint, as long as its not corked (i.e. fiction - the less said about First Light the better).

In this slim book there are indeed riches of vocabulary and turn of phrase, ornate and decorated, sentences rising as high as a croquembouche.

Previously I reviewed Ackroyd's Thames and it was a memorable book - maybe too long, for it is a style that can overwhelm the reader. Maybe that's why I skipped his follow-up London, The Biography (a typical bold claim, to use the definite article) in favour of Beter Sackroyd's "Piddle - A Gentle Stream".

London Under as you might expect is an exploration of the lands below our feet, the catacombs, rivers, sewers, water pipes, electric, communications, tube lines, pedestrian tunnels, secret bunkers and bomb shelters. To go below the surface is to burrow into history, layers of London stripped away as we travel back to pre-Roman Britain.

Time itself seems subject to his whim: "Time itself does not matter in the presence of the lost river" he says to which I respond with a baffled frown of someone who once could do space-time tensor algebra.

As you might expect from Ackroyd, pretty much anything can be a sign of the sacred, so that, for example, the water pipes "create a blessed space" - but there are demonic undertones underground too. He sometimes isn't sure which - maybe both, which no doubt is spiritual equivalent of double cream, naughty but nice.

There is mention of course of the controversial and much debated Thames Tunnel (as blogged here), though rather strangely he calls it "not widely known or discussed", which makes we wonder whether we have strayed into a parallel universe, otherwise called planet Ackroyd.

Having said all of this it is a great read and totally quaffable in a minimum of sittings.

Just remember to have a pinch or two of salt to hand.


Picture from: Amazon

Book Review: Furthest North

This book tells the story of the expedition to row to the North Pole - the magnetic North Pole that is, or at least where it was in 1996 (most famously once the destination for the Top Gear crew).

I blogged about them at the tail end of 2011 after watching a TV program about it and then googling the expedition's web site.

It was quite an amazing if chilly story about rowing across 450 NM of icy waters (and in this case I do really mean icy) to get up to 78.595°N. Six crew were crammed into the boat you see in the pic above which must have been a cosy fit.

Soon after watching it I was at the London Boat Show and who should I meet but the expedition leader, Arctic veteran Jock Wishart. We had a brief chat of which the only bit I really remember is the need for really good sleeping bags.

After that I bought the book and put to one side to read later, which I did just recently.

It's glossy and short but that's all good as it keeps it to the point. It covers not just the row itself but also the critical stages of preparation, in particular building a boat able to be withstand impact with ice floes and yet light enough to drag over pack ice.

I certainly enjoyed it and admired the story and photos of what is certainly a remarkable part of the planet, further north than I'm likely to go. The book includes a serious message about global warming's impact on the polar ice but at the end of the day its really about adventure.

A book to read somewhere warm with a glass of the sponsor's prize Old Pulteney whisky to hand.

Rather appropriately Old Pulteney comes from the far north of Scotland and calls itself "the genuine maritime malt".

Sounds like required drinking for polar explorers!


Updated: on BBC1 tonight and afterwards in iPlayer - see here


Photo from: Amazon

Book Review: The Natural Explorer

What does it mean to be an explorer in the age of Google Earth? When, unlike Magellan or Amundsen, we can not venture into lands uncharted or unmapped but rather known with a sometimes deep history, how can we still explore?

Those are the questions posed in The Natural Explorer by Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator. In what will surely become recognised as a classic of the genre Tristan reclaims the word for all of us.

Tristan (*) approaches the word in two directions. Firstly by suggesting we appreciate more the journeys we take by seeing how even the simplest path interacts with layers upon layers of information and knowledge.

Keep you senses, heart and mind open to the world around you. Be aware of the plants, the animals, the soil, the coastline, the hills and mountains, the sky, light and weather, waters both still and flowing, trees, woods and forests, geology and history, humans, cultures, food, drink, possessions, language, religions, beauty, music, art and so see the richness of the world.

As an example of this philosophy Tristan offers us the great German explorer Alexander von Humboldt who relished this greater treasure and his writing was valued by many not just of his time, like Charles Darwin, but also today.

For Humboldt also shows a way forward for exploring, as an act of communication. Those that gained the label of great explorer are almost by definition those that told the world of what they found.

And the modern explorer can do the same, for communicating what he or she finds is actually more necessary as the amount of information we could possibly know becomes an overpowering tsunami.

Filter data for knowledge, select stories wisely to tell truths, these are the tasks of the modern day explorer.

Another great read, well written and thought providing.


(*) full disclosure: Tristan is a sailing friend of mine

Picture from: Amazon

William Golding, sailor

Been overloaded with work at JP HQ so likely to be gaps between postings.

Today's short post is to point you towards this article about Nobel and Booker prize winning author William Golding who wrote Lord of the Flies.

Apparently he was a keen sailor until an accident at sea in the fog in which he lost his ship and nearly the lives of him and his crew.



Picture from: The Guardian

Book Review: The Watermen

I'm always aware when writing a review that the author could be in the audience. So its hard to know what to say when you don't enjoy a book, particularly when the author, Patrick Easter, was a police officer for 30 years, including some years working on the River Thames.

You can just imagine him - or a colleague - stopping this humble kayaker with a "hello, hello, hello, what's all this then?" and then charging me under some obscure 18th Century by-law.

And he'd know all about those, for this book is about the life on the waters of east London in the years leading up to 1800, and the conflict between the criminal gang leader and his nemesis on the newly formed police force.

I really did want to enjoy this book and had picked it up at Heathrow airport with high expectations. And yet I gave up half way through, having had enough.

But what put me off? It could be style isn't one I go for. Maybe where I picked it up was a clue as it does have an airport thriller air about it, the sort of thing Bonnie blogged about (and not this one with my comment that must have seemed cryptic to those that hadn't seen film the devil wears Prada).

It reminded me of my writing classes and that old saying "show don't tell". This was tell, tell, tell. Take the "nemesis" bit: just in case you didn't work that out it was in the text - indeed the lead two characters used that word to described how they felt about the other.

Do you remember those children's books full of adventure that you loved when young then came back to and winced at the technique? It reminded me of that.

I must admitted a lot happened in each chapter, but when there was a death or at least an assault in each after a while I got a bit tired.

It might just be me: there were good reviews in both the Guardian and the Express.

Sorry Patrick!



Picture from Waterstones here

Book Review: Hostage

There is not much sailing in this book; but if the sailing had continued past page 2 there wouldn't have been a book at all. For this is the story of Paul and Rachel Chandler, the attack by pirates on their yacht Lynn Rival sailing off the Seychelles and their long, long captivity.

Of course we all know how it ends - indeed I met them at the London Boat Show - but what happened in-between, somewhere lost in a lawless land?

It is probably a question many have wondered on hearing stories of hostages in failed states around the world. The reality is boredom, helplessness, fear, discomfort and soul destroying uncertainty. No contact with the outside world, no way of knowing what is going on and most importantly when - or even if - it will all end.

During these long months they relied on the one thing left to them - each other. But then even that was taken away from them as they were separated, kept company only by their guards in a series of shacks and camps in the Somalia wilderness.

It is hard to make even the slightest suggestions to a couple that have been through so much, but I wanted to know more about the politics of the land and the back story behind their captors.

What impact, for example, did foreign interference in Somalia have in destabilising its government? Did this lead to a loss of control of Somali waters and hence influx of trawlers with devastating impact on local fishing fleets? How much did their guards know about Britain? What was their education? What were their hopes?

I don't think either Paul or Rachel will be going back to ask those questions any day soon.

The book flows well and there are some useful maps and a couple of snatched photos which both add to the text.

If you want to know more about the realities of piracy, ignore the Hollywood fantasy and read this book instead.


Picture from: Waterstone's web site

Hostage

I'm sure there were many people saying "great you could be here" at the 2012 London Boat Show, but there were two people for whom that meant a lot more than just politeness.

Above are Paul and Rachel Chandler signing copies of their book Hostage, finally free from their terrible ordeal and safe back in blighty.

I had a brief chat with Rachel about their capture by Somali pirates and the motivation behind the re-arrangements of the VOR leg to Abu Dhabi. It must have been really awful - one of my greatest fears when travelling to Pakistan was kidnapping.

They are already planning their next voyage - to South America. I asked about Venezuela, having had a great time there, but it too has a bit of a piracy problem.

Its truly great that they are free and able to come to the Boat Show and I'm looking forward to reading my copy of their book.

Sherlock and the Boat Show

I was going to follow up my brief post on the boat show with another (short frequent postings being the thing nowadays) but the final episode of Sherlock started, and that demanded don't blink levels of attention.

And a cracker it was too. I won't spoil it if you haven't yet seen it (enjoy) but my suspicions were that if Moriarty could [deleted] then he surely could also [deleted]. And as for the ending, well the internet rumour mill is on overdrive but I agreed that Sherlock could have [deleted], [deleted] and then [deleted]: [deleted] is clearly key.

Anyhow less cryptically, the great Holmes is famous for noticing the dog that didn't bark and one of the interesting things about the boat show was who wasn't there this time who were in the past. Quite a lot of no-shows and the halls felt a lot emptier of stands and people.

For example there was no On Deck Sailing for the annual wouldn't it be great to do Antigua Week conversation. They probably got fed up with time wasters who each year would come up and say "wouldn't it be great to do Antigua Week", drink a glass of bubbly and then disappear.

So no free bubbly and no dancing girls.

But what was there? Well to answer that question would make this post long, and as we all know, frequent short posts are the thing now a days.

Later, guys!

Cathy and Heathcliff - lost on the moors!

EXT: the moors where Wuthering Heights was filmed. Visibility is poor but improving: out of the mists come HEATHCLIFF and CATHERINE.

CATHERINE

Oh Heathcliff my love I fear that we have made a grievous error and are now lost upon these desolate moors! We shall die forsaken: what a terrible fate! But be comforted by the fact that we will be together, forever!

HEATHCLIFF

Alas it is worse than that - I will miss the footie!

CATHERINE

But what is this? A tree? Will it be a better signpost than those false rocks?

HEATHCLIFF

We must hurry though, the kick-off is mere minutes away.

So what can our heroes learn from this tree? Can you help them reach safety in time for Heathcliff to see the kick-off?

Theatre review: Swallows and Amazons

Better drowned than duffers; if not duffers won't drown

The staged version of Swallows and Amazons, currently on at the Vandeville Theatre, London, starts as it should with the telegram to the Walker children from their father.

It works wonderfully, telling the famous story over a few brief hours to an enraptured audience of children and their parents, grandparents, aunts and of course uncles.

Adults act all the parts, as can be seen by the Swallows above. But they capture the spirit of each child so that Roger is Roger-like, and Titty is Titty-like. The fact that the smallest child is played by the largest adult adds to the magic - and humour.

The scenery and props are deliberately sparse, with gaps filled by the audience's imagination - which is as it should be for a story where camping becomes exploring and sailing becomes pirating. So waves are a pair of blue ribbons and the boat a skeleton so you focus on the essentials of sail and heel.

A few changes to plot were required to fit it into an evening and songs were added, but all in a seamless and supportive way. One line caught my ear, sung by the Amazons about how they grew up wild:

with only the clouds and a four bedroom house for shelter

That nicely summed up the spirit of adventure and middle class background of the families!

A wonderful evening that adds rather than subtracts from the book. At least one of my nephews now wants to read the story and my brother to read it to him.

All in all a great success.


Some reviews from Telegraph, FT, Evening Standard and Guardian. Also check out these this video and this one.

Book Review: To the Lands of the Vikings

This book describes Trevor and Lesley Hodgson's voyage across the Atlantic the hard way, the way the Vikings did it.

Starting at Hull they cross the North Sea to Norway before heading west, first to the Shetlands and the Faroes, then Iceland and Greenland to finally arrive at Canada and in particular Newfoundland.

As they go they keep an eye out for remains of Vikings travels and places they mentioned in the sagas, and in particular those relating to the early voyages of discovery to Vinland.

It was clearly an amazing voyage undertaken by an adventurous retired couple who clearly are experienced sailors and have a good boat, Symphony.

However if it were me I wouldn't have written it in the present tense, as that becomes disconcerting to the reader after a while. It could also use a bit of trimming and more photos - plus it would be useful to have some dates, just to get an idea of the time of year they reached each location.

But I certainly enjoyed learning about life on those cold dark northern seas, as Trevor and Lesley sailed in the wake of the norsemen.

Book Review: Atlantic

I actually finished this book a few weeks ago but pressure of work meant this review had to be put off.

In one way its a shame, as many of the minutiae of Simon Winchester's weighty tome have already merged together in one almighty swell. But maybe that is appropriately like the great ocean it describes.

This impressive book uses as its frame the seven ages of a man's life as given in Shakespeare's As you like it:

Infant: here we learn about how humanity first discovered the ocean - maybe very young in our history, on shores of South Africa

Schoolboy: in which various expeditions are sent out to turn those here be dragons and the edge of the world myths into charts and scientific discoveries

Lover: describing how the Atlantic has been portrayed in the arts, in art, music, novels and plays, including of course Shakespeare - who can forget The Tempest?

Soldier: alas these waters have run red too many times in our history as the blood of good men and women has dissolved into the sea, from the Romans to the Falklands.

Justice: ok, well in fact this section looks at trade, from the infamous slave trade to the beaverings of the Hanseatic league, to the packet ships and telegraph cables

Pantaloon: with old age creeping in Winchester looks at how we have despoiled our own environment, such as the catastrophic (and rather stupid) over fishing of the Newfoundland Grand Banks

Sans everything: takes the big view of an ocean that is getting bigger as sea levels rises and storms and flood threaten our great cities, and yet in the very long term is doomed as continents divided rejoin, squeezing the Atlantic away

Its one of those books that demand phrases like large canvas, for it is a huge subject. But Winchester does it proud, and his travels have given him a rock to build on.

From the south and being locked in a prison cell in Argentina during the Falklands war to the far north and being stuck by bad weather in a distant Greenland fjord called Scoresbysund, his many travels and experiences add flavour, colour and a human scale.

If I had to quibble I'd say the structure doesn't match the standard story structure, making it at times disjointed - oh, and the hardback version is too heavy.

But overall I really enjoyed this read and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Just make sure you get the paperback version!

A frightful anniversary

Today I share something with Alex and Taru.

No, I do not have a glamorous life sailing around the world, enjoying stunningly beautiful blue water, but like them today is an anniversary.

For me it is blogging, for 6 years ago today the first post went live. If I were 6 now I would be out there banging on doors demanding free chocolate, for today is Halloween!!

Being a little bit older I'll be connecting some appropriately spooky dots, and going back to the painter John Martin. As well as a career in art and a side line in designing London's sewage system he had time to raise not just 6 of his own children but also take under his wing a young woman called Jane Webb.

Jane Webb went on to write The Mummy (above) and the ever connected John Martin could also claim to know William Goldwin whose daughter wrote Frankenstein. It might not have been a coincidence then that one of Martin's own daughters married an Egyptologist.

Indeed there sometimes seems no limit to the connections John Martin made. He shared lodgings with the future King of Belgium (who became godfather to one of Martin's children) and at his dinner parties you could meet Dickens, Michael Faraday, Turner and John Tenniel, the illustrator of Lewis Carroll's books.

One amazing story has him on the footplate of a steam train with none other than Isambard Kingdom Brunel thundering along at 90 mph as they proved conclusively that a train could go faster than a horse.

What a great life!

Frankenstein and Putney

In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.

What's this? you are probably thinking. Has JP finally lost it? This quote is from Dickens not Shelley and those two bridges are down river in central London, not leafy Putney - where is this post going?

Hold on, we'll get to that. But lets focus on that image from Our Mutual Friend of the waterman on the Thames one autumnal evening, about to recover a body from the cold waters of the Thames, for that is what this tale is all about.

If you had been standing on old Putney Bridge in November 1795 you would have witnessed a very sad scene. A lady, her heart broken as she realised her beloved would never be hers, decided to kill herself. She went out in the pouring rain until her clothes were heavy with water then threw herself off that bridge, determined to end her sorry lot.

Fortunately two watermen spotted this attempt and were able to rescue her, and in time she recovered and was able to love again. Indeed she married and had two children, both daughters.

The eldest was Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin who later married the poet Shelley, It while she was on holiday by Lake Geneva with her husband and Lord Byron that she wrote that great novel, Frankenstein.

If it wasn't for those two unknown watermen who picked her mother Mary Wollstonecraft, also a writer, from the muddy, dark, cold waters of the Thames Frankenstein would never had been written and we would not have the monster in the photo above.

So you could say that in a way the monster came from that river: a disturbing thought as I peer out at the dark, listening to the wind howling in the trees.

Book Review: Ultimate Sailing Adventures

I got this book over the weekend, tempted, as the nights are getting longer, by the pictures and stories of sailing adventures. It has something for everyone, ranging from the canals of France to exploring the Northwest passage.

The ones I've done are:
- Round the Island Race
- Sydney Harbour
- Land's End
- Sail up the Thames
- Fastnet
- Sushi at sea
- Charter in Greece
- Cowes Week
- Race around Portland Bill
- Oysters in Cornwall
- East Coast sailing (ok, in a dinghy)
- Wander in a Wayfarer (ok, have sailed a Wayfarer)
- Cross the English Channel

Some of the others to be honest I can't see myself ever doing - the likes of competing in the Volvo or Vendee Globe, but there are plenty of ideas for future sails.

One thing I wasn't sure about was it has this concept of difficulty.

Now I can see that sailing a Wayfarer could be anything from "simple" to "extreme" depending upon where you sail it. But how is it that both rounding Land's End and Portland Bill are described as "tricky" but the Fastnet, which involves both, is only described as "moderate" - the same as Charter in Greece? I mean - seriously?

Sailing in the ARC or in a classics regatta weren't on the list so maybe there needs to be a list of 200 sailing adventures?

What sailing adventures would be on your list?

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

sponsored links

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Crested Gecko

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Fishers Chameleon

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Fishers Chameleon

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Indonesian Blue Tree Monitor

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Limenitis Astyanax

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Nymphalid Butterflies

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Red Eyed tree Frog

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

This review is from: Animals Up Close (Hardcover)
Beautiful photography meets high quality facts to create a nonfiction title that everyone should see. Although not the first to offer close-proximity images (Nic Bishop's work is a recent example), Animals Up Close does so with a variety of fauna, and at a level few can touch. From centipedes to sea urchins, hermit crabs to chameleons, students will be repulsed, amazed, and thoroughly transfixed by this book.

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close first provides some context for the small creatures that are to be presented. Sections on how small animals view the world, how they are classified, and how they were photographed lay the groundwork for the meat of the book. What follows is essentially a role-call of a wide variety of animals including insects, mammals, birds, fish.

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Each animal gets its own two-page spread containing:

1. An entry describing the animal.

2. A graphic showing name, size, habitat, lifespan, and endangered status.

3. Specific information pointed out in a diagram style.

4. An insanely detailed photograph.

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

The amount of facts make Animals Up Close suitable for information-seeking students.

This book owes everything to its images. In his forward, Siwanowicz asserts that, "When you get up really close, many of these creatures look like aliens from another planet." That's no joke. The photos, especially those of lesser known insects, will challenge the way you look at the animal world. They also might leave readers pleasantly grossed-out. Siwanowicz captures his subjects with sharp clarity and often from unexpected angles. A belly-side shot of a Gecko clinging to glass shows how the lizard's feet are specially adapted for climbing.

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Some creatures are more suited for this sort of inspection. While the up-close treatment of jellyfish and the small tamarin monkey are less awe-inspiring than others, this would have been hard to avoid. With the variety of animals presented, there was bound to be a few that don't stand out.

Animals Up Close is a wonderful merging of image and information. Fans of Nic Bishop take notice. A highly recommended nonfiction selection.

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Argiope

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Chamaeleo Rudis

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

Chinese Comet Moth

Animals Up Close by Igor Siwanowicz

cornelius Chameleon

Image Credit: blepharopsis-deviantart

Animals Up Close

sponsored links 

Iain M. Banks and the search for Utopia

After yesterday's theremin themed post a brief word on the rest of the British Library's Out of this World exhibition.

To be honest I was disappointed: it was trying too hard to show that there is a long tradition in what we now call science fiction and that even "serious" writers dabble in it. That for me is not the point, which is it is a medium that allows the writer to explore ideas. The exhibition did acknowledge that, but without going into depth as to the details of these conflicting ideas and overlooked some of the most important SF books.

It could also be argued that many "serious" writers make a mess of SF as they don't understand the genre, but there is of course the counter example of Iain Banks - or rather his alter-ego, Iain M. Banks, a disguise almost as effective as Clark Kent's.

His utopian Culture series of SF novels are a favourite of mine, and the disappointment of the exhibition was countered by a very interesting discussion on the concept of Utopia between Banks and Gregory Claeys, author of Searching for Utopia.

Claeys gave a rather academic (read mind expanding) summary of his thesis, which was that utopias were really about hope rather than religion, politics etc. I got the feeling the attention of audience, heavily biased towards fans of The Culture, slipped a bit at this point.

But Banks did not disappoint, jumping like one of his stories from idea to idea, not always in a linear way (again like his stories) but always entertaining.

The session was chaired by Francis Spufford who wrote the totally wonderful "The Backroom Boys: the return of the British Boffin" (hurrah huzzah!).

There was a lively discussion, to which yours truly contributed the thesis that there are inevitably disagreements about what would be ideal and the concept of utopia is useful therefore as a mechanism to debate their merits.

Anyhow, a fascinating evening that made up for a mediocre exhibition. There are other talks in the series and the program can be downloaded in PDF form here.

Book Review: Walking on Water

First a confession - I read this book some time ago but didn't get round to reviewing it. But today's a wet Bank Holiday (and how often do those words go together) so as good a time as any for a post.

I picked this up at the Boat Show when I met him just after he'd been awarded Yachtsman of the Year for being the first quadriplegic to sail across the Atlantic. He'd given a talk and come across as a fluent confident speaker and the writing is equally good, well structured and always flowing.

The book covers an earlier time, from childhood and first sailing experiences to the accident, long recovery up to the Round Britain, but no further, so the Atlantic isn't covered.

At first I couldn't make up my mind whether it was about someone coming to terms with their disability via sailing or a sailor who was in a wheelchair. I got the feeling that Geoff would rather it was the latter, that he'd be taken as a sailor first, that you could look beyond the machines that help him move.

However while sailing does indeed alter the direction of a life it can't have the same devastating impact that comes from breaking one's neck and resulting paralysis. The core of book was the story of someone who overcome the hurdles of his body's limitation to do what he loved - in this case sailing. I have a feeling Jamie Andrew's book would have a similar ethos, leaving a similar message and showing a similar character - though with climbing as the focus.

But there's no doubting his great achievement in sailing round Britain in a lively trimaran while barely able to hold a rope. On the way there were disasters including a near drowning in front of the world's media on the first attempt to start the circumnavigation.

A good read of how a determined man overcame almost overwhelming odds to achieve his personal Everest.

Book Review: Voyage East

Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr recently made the headlines by saying he missed nothing about his home city of Liverpool. It is indeed a city that is short of admirers, but there is one thing it was rightly famous for, and that was its shipping lines. And arguably the greatest of those was the Blue Funnel Line.

Ok, maybe I'm more than a little biased given it was founded by a great-to-the-something relative, but it seems that I'm not alone, and the Voyage East would be one of the exhibits in my defence.

This book describes the journey by a ship of the Blue Funnel Line in the last days of Britains once great mercantile fleet. There isn't a precise date as its an amalgamation of several journeys - I'm guessing around 1960 - into one, with names changed to protect the innocent.

Not that there were many innocents among the crew, for this book makes it clear the reputation of the merchant seaman was well earned, and the description of the temptations of shore are graphic, together with the risks and fears of STDs.

It makes a great companion to a book previously reviewed, namely the Surgeon's Log. There are strong echoes of this earlier book in Voyage East and I wouldn't be surprised if Richard Woodman, its author, was familiar with it. He seems well read, often quoting the likes of Conrad, just as the Surgeon's Log was frequently quoting my favourite buccaneer, William Dampier. 

In both cases the journey starts and ends in what was the great port of Liverpool, taking in the Suez Canal, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Japan and back again via the Philippines and Borneo. The boat has a rich but realistic cast of "characters" from the old man, known as China Dick (and for a reason), the Mate (from the old school - efficient and married to the romance of the sea), to the engineers and deck hands. 

I really enjoyed it, and felt it captured the reality of that life, the hardship of endless watches and loss of roots that comes from continual travel, balanced by the wonders of strange lands and those experiences of the sea worth remembering: perfect sunsets and endless stars at night.

In the end the British merchant navy was to be destroyed not by war or angry seas but a metal box. For the soulless container ship operating under flag of convenience would make the general cargo ship an anachronism.

But there are many that morn its loss, and there are those Blueys still out there with memories of derricks and cargo storage, carrying anything from palm oil to the kitchen sink through storms and typhoons.

And I'm sure they will look back on those days with affection and read this book with a smile of recognition