Carolyn Kirby’s 2019 debut novel The Conviction of Cora Burns was nominated for awards by the Historical Writers Association and the Crimefest/Specsavers Fiction Prize. Her latest, Ravenglass, is an 18th century adventure over land and sea. Here are her top 5 seafaring adventure books.
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
A classic war story based on the author’s experiences as an officer on small warships during the Second World War. The crew of the fictional HMS Compass Rose play a terrifying game of cat and mouse with U boats in the North Atlantic.
English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
A ship sails from England carrying its Victorian passengers towards new lives in colonial Tasmania. Their tribulations are threaded through recollections from the island’s natives, who are struggling to preserve a disappearing way of life.
Read more:
- These people re-traced Charles Darwin’s voyage around the world. This is what they learned
- Top 5 children’s books set on islands, selected by children’s author Lucy Strange
Haven by Emma Donoghue
In seventh-century Ireland, three monks drift out to sea on a small boat and find themselves marooned on a bird-covered, rocky outcrop in the Atlantic. What follows is bizarre, shocking and completely compelling.
Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys
A mystery set on a pre-war passenger liner to Australia. Londoner Lily boards the ship in July 1939 and six weeks later when the ship docks in Sydney the world is at war and a young woman disembarks onto the quayside in handcuffs.
