Authors Electric

Suffolk journalist Catherine Larner is planning a feature about Stars to Steer By  (to be published May 8 th 2025) and suggests the question ‘what have you taken away from the experience of writing it?’ I’m assuming that she doesn’t really want to hear what a slog the endnotes were or how frustrating it is to try to get permissions from publishing houses that were active 50 years ago but have since been taken over, amalgamated, gobbled up by the big multinationals who scarcely seem to know what companies they own, let alone what books might once have been on their list. She might like to know what a privilege it has been to receive help from absolute heroines of the sailing world -- Tracy Edwards, Naomi James, Nicolette Milnes-Walker, -- and generally from everyone, female or male, who I asked about the project. In my acknowledgements I say truthfully that I have never written such a collaborative book. Even some of the yacht clubs who have historically been thoroughly stuffy (i...

Barbara Hughes in the Sportswoman's Library (BL permission) The title of my book has been changed: That Spirit of Independence has become Stars to  Steer By . It’s still a book of celebration, mentioning more than one hundred wonderful sea-women. And yes, they are all included because of their variously independent spirits. No change there. The title I chose myself was given me by a rebellious Solent racer called Barbara Hughes. She was racing slim, fast keelboats from the age of about 13 in 1885 and loved it: ‘It is the most delightful education in the world, the most interesting and healthful. It becomes so engrossing that you will not rest until you understand the whole thing and know the why and wherefore of all the different moves.’ Barbara was the 5th of 6 children so was usually subordinate to her father, brothers or older sisters. She wanted to be in charge of her own boat, competing on equal terms: ‘you should have it all in your own hands, with no one to say you “nay”, o...

  Wake up, check the clock, sit up, drag laptop onto duvet, open it up, find the file, check the word count and write it down.   63762 this morning. It’ll need to be 64+++ by tomorrow. 64762 I hear you say - well no, not every day. Anything beyond 64000 will do. There’s a cheating get out clause whereby as long as the first two numbers have changed there’s a little less stress about the others. Okay that’s not so admirable but there has to be a little bit of slack in the system, doesn’t there?  If I was offshore racing and suggested a little bit of slack in the system, the answer from any serious competitor would be a shocked NO! I’ve recently been reading the section of Tracy Edwards' autobiography Living Every Second where she and legendary navigator Adrienne Cahalan made their 1998 attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy. That’s the prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of sailing yacht. The starting line is between Ushant and the Lizard and...

The only UK entry in the 2023 OCR  It started just three weeks ago. I’d heard that Tracy Edwards’s iconic yacht Maiden was lying in St Katherine’s Dock in London and would be open to the public on Saturday afternoon. Then I heard that I could buy a ticket just a couple of days earlier and attend an evening event to meet the crew. This had the great merit of offering pleasure and research… would Tracy Edwards herself be there? ‘Marketing’ isn’t keen on Lionesses of the Sea as the title for my forthcoming book about c20th women sailors and I can’t be bothered to argue the point just now. But Tracy would make a great lioness.  She was certainly there. She opened the gate to let us all troop in. An erect, petite figure in an anorak. Not playing the celebrity hostess; the gate needed opening. She opened it. Suddenly there, next to  Maiden , able to touch her, potentially go on board, I felt overcome with emotion. This yacht, which had raced around the world with the first...

  Photo to accompany Lionesses' letter to the  candidates for PM, asking for better opportunities   for girls football The football Lionesses who caught our hearts as well as winning the European Cup were clear that they were a fortunate generation, building on the stubbornness of those who’d gone before. Interviewees referred to the players of the c20th who’d given their own money and time, as well as their hearts and skills, to the game they loved.  Not everyone was prepared to gloss over past rejections. The clubs who’d refused to host their games because ‘no one’s interested in women’s football,’ weren’t going to be forgiven and forgotten, as the team packed Wembley Stadium with a record 87,192 attendance and won the first major competition for England since 1966. Former player turned presenter, Alex Scott, said, ‘Let’s just remind ourselves as well, back in 2018, we were begging people to host in their stadiums a women’s game for this Euros. So many people ...