Book
The Lonely Voyage
First published 1951
Jess Ferigo grows up with few prospects beyond the town he has always known, but he is determined to make a life at sea. Against his family’s wishes he joins the crew of a battered trawler, where hard work, danger and the influence of the educated but damaged Old Boxer become part of his passage into adulthood.
Years of maritime labour eventually carry Jess into the Second World War. The skills learned aboard fishing vessels acquire a new purpose during the evacuation from Dunkirk, when civilian boats and their crews become part of the effort to rescue Allied soldiers from the beaches. The novel links one man’s search for independence with the working seafaring communities drawn into the crisis of 1940.
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