The Half Bird

Susan Smillie

Michael Joseph

£16.99

Susan Smillie reached Land’s End, then turned left instead of right. What had been planned as a Round Britain voyage on her elderly Nicholson 26, Isean, became a three-year voyage of discovery, extending down the coasts of France, Spain and Portugal and into the Mediterranean. It becomes clichéd to commend a book for expressing the twin resonances of a voyage to new places being also a voyage into oneself, yet this is an outstandingly good example of the genre. There are particular for a woman sailing alone but the kindness of strangers outweighs the occasional bullying official or drunken lout.

Evocative writing, imaginative insight and her emotional bond with her boat makes this a book to cherish.