johnmcc
Member
Sailing With Mr Belloc by Dermod MacCarthy, published in the 'eighties.
Dermod MacCarthy was the son of literary critics and Bloomburyites Desmond and Mollie MacCarthy, but don't let that put you off. This is an account of crewing as a young man for Hilaire Belloc in the 1930s on his huge old Channel Islands pilot cutter "Jersey".
Belloc, principally remembered for his Cautionary Tales, was a hugely prolific author, sailor, walker and thinker. His "Cruise of The Nona" - bringing an old yacht from North Wales to the south coast just before WW1 - is a classic.
But MacCarthy's book, written shortly before he died in the early 1980s, is an exploration of what it was like to sail very heavy, leaky, engineless, old wooden boats for pleasure before terylene sails, synthetic ropes, aluminium spars, bottled gas and yacht radio. Many photographs. Only available secondhand.
Dermod MacCarthy went on to become quite a famous paediatrician, involved in setting up children's services in the early NHS.
Dermod MacCarthy was the son of literary critics and Bloomburyites Desmond and Mollie MacCarthy, but don't let that put you off. This is an account of crewing as a young man for Hilaire Belloc in the 1930s on his huge old Channel Islands pilot cutter "Jersey".
Belloc, principally remembered for his Cautionary Tales, was a hugely prolific author, sailor, walker and thinker. His "Cruise of The Nona" - bringing an old yacht from North Wales to the south coast just before WW1 - is a classic.
But MacCarthy's book, written shortly before he died in the early 1980s, is an exploration of what it was like to sail very heavy, leaky, engineless, old wooden boats for pleasure before terylene sails, synthetic ropes, aluminium spars, bottled gas and yacht radio. Many photographs. Only available secondhand.
Dermod MacCarthy went on to become quite a famous paediatrician, involved in setting up children's services in the early NHS.
