A Literary Thread

Kukri

Kukri

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Inspired by Hadenough's entirely reasonable complaint that literary discussion should not infest a thread on a boat sunk at her moorings, but mindful that some of the best sailing writing has been penned by East Coasters. I thought I would start a thread for East Coast literary gems.

"Swin Swale and Swatchway" - 1892 I think - H Lewis Jones

"East Coast Rivers" - the 1903 original by SVC Messum RN (the original of the "slim book" in "The Riddle of the Sands")

"East Coast Rivers" - many subsequent editions by Jack Coote and Jan Harber.

"Cruising Hints" - also many editions - Francis B Cooke.

"Suffolk Sea Borders" - H Alker Tripp

"The Magic of the Swatchways" Maurice Griffiths

"We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" - Arthur Ransome

"Last Stronghold of Sail" - Hervey Benham

"Tideways and byways in Essex and Suffolk" - Archie White

"Gaff Rig" - John Leather

Please add...
 
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On a broader general seafaring front how about

Mr Midshipman Easy

Two years before the mast

Both written 150 odd years ago but none the worse for it.
 
Hydrozoan said:
Is Francis B Cooke’s ‘Practical Yachting Hints’ different from his ‘Cruising Hints’ I wonder? My copy of the former is, if I recall correctly, undated but has this cover: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/...francis+b+cooke&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title3
Click to expand...

He tended to write the same book with a few additions and deletions. He had a long career as a sailing writer - I remember reading his last contribution to YM, in the Sleightholme era, written when he was 100. The subject was "mud".

May I commend Dick Wynne's omnibus edition?
 
Minn said:
He tended to write the same book with a few additions and deletions. He had a long career as a sailing writer - I remember reading his last contribution to YM, in the Sleightholme era, written when he was 100. The subject was "mud".

May I commend Dick Wynne's omnibus edition?
Click to expand...

Thanks, I thought that might be the case but was not sure - and I'll also put in a word for Charles Stock.
 
Love a thread like this!

My favourite book is MG's Magic of the Swatchways - has to be really as features my boat (Storm) quite a bit. MG did other similar short story type books towards the end of his life, First of the Tide, Round the Cabin Table etc.

Although Riddle of the Sands isn't about the East Coast, it's so similar in geography it's almost EC.

Under the Cabin Lamp by Alker Tripp

In Tidal Waters FB Cooke

The Last Cruise of the Teal by Leigh Ray 1893 - confusingly the sequel to "Swin Swale and Swatchway" - 1892 by H Lewis Jones

Gotty & the Guv'nor A E Copping

Saltwater Village M Leather

We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea & Secret Water A Ransome

A Taste for Sailing John Lewis (also Small Craft Conversion)

Only So Many Tides Jon Wainwright

An Old Gaffers Tale Martin Eve
 
Down Tops'l - Hervey Benham
A Breeze for a Bargeman - Bob Roberts
Last of the Sailormen - Bob Roberts
Coasting Bargemaster - Bob Roberts
Once Upon a Tide - Hervey Benham
Last Stronghold of Sail - Hervey Benham
The Salvagers - Hervey Benham

If you don't have those seven books in your library, then you really need to pay Waterstones (other bookshops are available) a visit and purchase copies as a matter of absolute urgency! All are IMHO absolute gems!
 
Michael Green’s other sailing book “The Art of Coarse Cruising” is nearly as funny as the Norfolk Broads one, but with a wider application for cruising sailors.
I would like to read, but have failed to find a copy of, “Gotty goes Furrin”
 
Without a doubt, all the Des Sleightholme Old Harry books, and then "SODs law of the Sea" … When I first read Magic of the Swatchways, I picked it straight back up and read it again straight over....
 
I used to read a lot of these sorts of book but less lately, however:

Also by Alker Tripp, Shoal Waters and Fairways.

The Voyage alone in theYawl Rob Roy by John MacGregor is from 1867. I can't remember much about it but the drawings are nice.

Suffolk Invasion, by Frank Hussey is a very well written and illustrated account of the 1667 battle at Landguard fort.

Ode to Joy written and illustrated by my friend Janet Harker and her late husband. It is the story of a small boat as told by the boat, and suitable for young and old.

Tide ways and Byways Essex and Suffolk is an old-fashioned romp but with fine drawings.
 
I'll give a shout out for three authors.

James Wentworth Day - 'Rum Owd Boys' - a superb drawing of life on and around the Blackwater before and during the second war. I once met James in the King's Head in Tollesbury in his latter years (late 1970s) and he offered to write me a job reference; wish I'd taken him up on it.

John Kemp - 'A Fair Wind for London' - John was my first boss, when I was in the barges, and this is his tale of how he came to own Thalatta, with lots of charming tales about the fisher folk of Maldon.

Jonathan Raban - 'Coasting' - This might seem an outfield choice, as it is part autobiographical, part travelogue, and is an account of the author's attempt to become a mariner and circumnavigate England (if that's possible) in order to write about its character. He starts somewhere down south, and returns there, without mention of the Blackwater until the very end of the story, when he unfolds how entranced he was by our coast and how he later settled here.
 
Then there is "The Last Sailorman" by Dick Durham
"Living in the Backwaters" By Michael Emmett
"Blackwater Men" by Arthur and Michael Emmett
"The jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch Crawler" by Nick Ardley

And if you are allowed to come ashore in the early years of the 20th century, how about the books about the Essex Marshes by SL Bensusan? Written in the vernacular they are wittily observed accounts of life on the Dengie, the wildfowlers, fishermen, shopkeepers gentry and all. "Marshland Calling" and Marshland Echoes" are but two. All long out of print but worth tracking down secondhand.
 
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