Books with a sailing theme

[Talbot]

Having resisted the O'Brian books for ages, I thought I had better take the plunge before seeing the new film. This led me to thinking about which authors write fictional books with a sailing theme, and are worth reading (IMHO of course) These are my thoughts:

O'Brian - enough said!
C S Forester - Hornblower etc
Alexander Kent - Bolitho
Douglas Reeman - various
Dudley Pope - Ramage
Nicholas Monserrat - Mr Midshipman Easy, and others
Anthony Trew - Various
Bernard Cornwell - Stormchild etc
Desmond Bagley - Golden Keel


There must be lots of others that my worn out brain box cant quite recall - what do you lot like to read?????

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[Shanty]

Like your list - CS Forester in particular. However, wasn't Mr Midshipman Easy written by Captain Marryat?

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[jimi]

Hammond Innes .. many and various, including "The wreck of the Mary Deare" and "Levkas Man". The latter is essential reading on an Ionian holiday

<hr width=100% size=1>.. when's that again, but ..

 

[penfold]

Sam Llewellyn - Dead Reconning and some others

<hr width=100% size=1>Gosh darn it, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue purttier than a twenty dollar whore!

 

[pugwash]

Conrad

Joseph Conrad of course -- Typhoon, Freya (sublime!) and lots of others but one of the best is his autobiog as a Cape Horner called Mirror of the Sea. His most effective passages are about torpid calms. There is no loneliness at sea, he wrote, that compares with the emptiness of a sheet of white paper. As for other titles it depends if you mean sailing, voyaging or fighting. C. Northcote Parkinson wrote someHornblower-type books and a wonderful analysis of Hornblower's battles. Daphne du Maurier was more romance than sea-going but Frenchman's Creek is great fun. I think We Didn't Mean To go to Sea and Riddle of the Sands are two of the greatest cruising novels of all time.

Great question! I'm still thinking.

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[qsiv]

Re: Conrad

For a classicist .. Belloc, not always an easy read but a lovely insight into different time.



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[mickshep]

Re: Conrad

Aaaaagh! Got me. Bought 'We didn't mean to go to sea' for my 9 year old daughter for Xmas, It has somehow found its way to the side of my bed with a bookmark already into chapter 2. Hope she doesn't notice its gone for a while. Mike.


<hr width=100% size=1>"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me."

 

[pugwash]

Re: Conrad

Strangely enough I bought it for my two-month-old grandson, suitably inscribed inside ("Your grandfather's favourite book") and I'm just drifting out in the fog heading for Holland. What a great story. As for Belloc's Cruise of the Nona: remember the yachtsman he met at sea who couldn't recognise the Isle of Wight. "Is that the Needles?" he hailed from his cockpit, thus inspiring one of the great moments in sailing literature.

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[RupertW]

What were they called?

Nevil Shute wrote at least two wonderful books with sailing as a major part, "What happened to the Corbetts", and "Trustee from the Toolroom".

There are another couple of books, whose story remains imprinted on my brain, but not the titles or authors, doh!

Both were written and set in the sixties, or early seventies I think. The first was about someone "on the beach" in Africa being hired to snatch a terrorist leader (or freedom fighter) from his exile on an Atlantic Island, by sailing to the island and picking him up, called something like "A Hero for??". The second book was about an entrant who starts a singlehanded round the world race, and finds he has a female stowaway. Too much of his own money is invested in the race to let him stop, so he sails on with her - with intriguing consequences.

Oh for a better memory

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[paulineb]

Jerome K Jerome .... Three Men in a Boat

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.paulinebeddoes.co.uk/php-cgi/gallery2>Perils of Pauline in Pics</A>

 

[Rustyknight]

I'm pretty certain that Alexander Kent and Douglas Reeman were one and the same person..... but excellant books all the same.

Although not strictly sailing, but more ships and people, Brian Callison wrote quite a few books that are worth a trip to the library for.

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[Talbot]

said my brain wasn't working - you are quite correct. However Monsarrat did write good books as well

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[Talbot]

Re: Conrad

Swallows and Amazons was a major input during my childhood (at least 5 years ago /forums/images/icons/smile.gif). Canyt think why I left them off. Hated the film, but been meaning to read the books again for some time.

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[Rabbie]

I've got a very old 'Ocean Tramps' by H. De Vere Stackpoole. Absolutely great read. Found in a local charity shop where all my sailing reading comes from. Anybody ever heard of him/her?.

<hr width=100% size=1>There is nothing wrong with sex on television. Unless you fall off!..

 

[LadyInBed]

Not quite sailing but <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.military-history-books.com/titles/1468.htm> ONE OF OUR SUBMARINES by Edward Young </A> the first hard back I read as a 12 year old, totally gripped me and never forgotten.

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[l'escargot]

Richard Woodman - Nathaniel Drinkwater series:
http://www.julianstockwin.com/


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[RupertW]

The Kidd series - absolutely! Read the first 3 and looking forward to the next. Great to have a non-officer view.

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[MainlySteam]

Not necessarily pure saily but easy classics with a sea oriented theme and which, in addition to many of the ones already mentioned by others, I enjoy rereading:

Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Jack London - The Sea Wolf

John

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[longjohnsadler]

Don't think much sailing goes on in Three Men In A Boat.
Sounds like your Christmas wish-list?

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[RMA]

Two books that I enjoyed were 'Isabel and the Sea' and 'A White Boat from England' by George Millar, the stories of two trips to the Med just after WW2. Long out of print, but very well written and, in my opinion, a pleasure to read. I also enjoyed 'Gotty and the Guv'nor' by A E Copping, but perhaps that's because my natural habitat is the east coast.

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