Seamanship - by Adam Nicolson (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of "God's Secretaries" comes a thrilling sailing saga of a 42-foot ketch among the islands of Ireland and Scotland and the tensions that develop between skipper and crew on a stormy and dangerous trip. Map.

From the Back Cover

From Land's End to Cape Clear, past Roaringwater Bay and Cod's Head, on past Inishvickillane and Inishtooskert, up through the Hebrides, to Orkney and on to the Faeroes stretches the richest and wildest coastline in Europe. Adam Nicolson decided to sail this coast in the Auk, a 42-foot wooden ketch, embarking on a 1,500-mile voyage through what he hoped would be a sequence of revelatory landscapes. He was not disappointed.

Seamanship is more than a travel journal. It describes an inner journey as much as an outer one--disasters and discoveries, powerful landscapes and modern visionaries, and encounters with the animals living on the wild edge of the Atlantic. Above all, it is about the gaps that open up between those who go and those who stay at home.

Seamanship, in the end, is not about the sea. It's about being alive.

Review Quotes

"A dazzling triumph--a profound and magical account of a voyage along the wild edges of the British coast." - Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, winner of the National Book Award
"A genuinely intriguing, thoughtful work." - --Mail on Sunday
"A dazzling triumph--profound and magical." - Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea
"A tale of tall seas, wild coasts and frustrated relationships . . . Nicolson writes beautifully." - Sunday Times (London)
"An odyssey of island hopping and psychic exploration." - --Kirkus Reviews
"Nicolson's love for the sea and his fervor for travel and adventure is evident from the first page to the last." - Booklist
"A superb book, as wise as it is beautiful." - --Bernard Cornwell