No Quitting

Andrea Barker

31:24 Press

£12.99

This account of a merchant navy cadetship is not an easy read. The author, a bright but unhappy girl from a dysfunctional home, began applying for cadetships at age 15. Her father, grandfather, great-grandfather had all been to sea. From earliest years she had been determined to do the same. Eventually she gained a place at Warsash Maritime Centre and thought her problems were over. They were not. Her blunt accounts of the prejudice and sexual predation she experienced between 16-18 are distressing to read, as is the advice that she should ‘learn to put up with it’.

This book also offers detailed insight into the practical training, determination and sheer hard work that gained her officer qualification. I hope she writes a sequel.