Riddle of the Waves

Stephen Price Brown

Adlard Coles Nautical

£16.99 hardback

Turn to Starboard, the charity that runs the Merseyside pilot schooner Spirit of Falmouth, aims to use the power of the sea and sailing to heal those who have been mentally damaged by war. It’s impressively well-organised and it works. This account of Spirit’s 2016 circumnavigation of the British Isles has a great line in banter and the sort of team-building that thrives on practical jokes, trips to the pub and water fights. Threaded through are the stories of individuals who have seen human cruelties beyond imagination. “Sailing,” wrote one of them “gives my brain a chance to rest. Everything else can go fuck itself.”