How far would you go to find yourself? This is the lyrical, life-affirming new novel from Michael Morpurgo.
When orphaned Arthur Hobhouse is shipped to Australia after WW II he loses his sister, his country and everything he knows. The coming years will test him to his limits, as he endures mistreatment, neglect and forced labour in the Australian outback. But Arthur is also saved, again and again, by his love of the sea. And when he meets a nurse whose father owns a boat-building business, all the pieces of his broken life come together.
Now, at the end of his life, Arthur has built a special boat for his daughter Allie, whose love of the sea is as strong and as vital as her father's. Now Allie has a boat that will take her to England solo, across the world's roughest seas, in search of her father's long-lost sister. Will the threads of Arthur's life finally come together?
Since being relieved of the laureate's crown, Michael Morpurgo seems to have gone into orbit. This year alone, he has turned pundit on the subject of childhood (The Invention of Childhood on Radio 4) and has three excellent new books out: On Angel Wings, a Nativity story illustrated by Quentin Blake; Singing for Mrs Pettigrew, a collection of stories and essays; and now Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, his best book in years.
The title is taken from Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and is, in part, the stormy tale of a modern mariner. It was inspired by the history of English orphans transported to Australia after the Second World War. Arthur Hobhouse is one such child and we read of his harsh, adventurous, Antipodean childhood, his rough youth and eventual happy marriage. His death ends the book's first half.
Arthur possesses one English souvenir, a 'lucky key', a farewell gift from his sister, Kitty. After his death, his daughter, Ally, sails alone in a boat, built by her father, from Hobart to England in pursuit of Kitty. I read the yarn aloud to my children, unsure whether it might prove too sophisticated (they are 7-10), but they were completely hooked, as was I, for the length of the voyage.
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How far would you go to find yourself? This is the lyrical, life-affirming new novel from Michael Morpurgo.
