Authors Electric

  ‘Why do you want to republish The Tuesday Boys ?’ my youngest brother asked. My immediate answer would be 'Because I love it,' and I know he agrees with me. Libby Purves and Claudia Myatt say the same. But is that sufficient reason to republish?   The Tuesday Boys is a book about a project to take eight young East London  children sailing. It began in 1975, fifty years ago. Will it make any sense to readers today? On one level, yes, belief in the potential for sail training to widen horizons and change lives has been in existence since the late c18th when the Marine Society began taking boys from London workhouses and providing initial training before they went to sea with the merchant navy. Through the c19th and early c20th, while Britain's need for seafarers remained obvious, charities continued to work to ensure that the most deprived inner city children (boys) had their chance to succeed at sea.  More general charities, such as sea scouts and sea cadets, ...

  Twice, last week, people complimented me on having ‘written so many books’. It was kindly meant, but not true. There are a dozen of them – and they give me lasting pleasure – but that’s not much in ‘real writer’ terms. Where I have been additionally lucky is to work on other people’s books. Again, only in small numbers, but it is a very special privilege to have the permission to get close to someone else’s thoughts and words by publishing their book.   This month Golden Duck publishing is taking three new books to the Southampton Boat Show: Scapa Ferry is an account of sailing courage, wild weather and sheer hard work in wartime; The Tuesday Boys tells a tale of foster love, expressed through sailing. It’s a heart warmer that leaves questions: How much can you truly help another person by teaching something new? Does it make a lasting difference to show another way of life? Can you ever mend the damage caused by the rejection of a child?  Both these books are rep...