Wavewalker

by Suzanne Heywood

This book depicts the 10 years the author spent sailing around the world with her parents and younger brother. She departed England at the age of seven on their boat, the Wavewalker.

It's quite an adventure, including a near death experience in the Indian Ocean a couple of years into the trip. However the actual story of the book is that of a young girl spending the best 10 years of her youth lonely at sea, rather than socialising with friends at school. Whilst the story turns out well, with the author going to Oxford University, the author is clear: this was not the idylic childhood her parents pretended she had and she has the psychological scars to show it. The fact that she coped so well is quite a miracle. She was more often than not neglected by her parents, both psychologically and physically. They essentially abandoned her in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand to look after her brother, whilst the parents continued sailing to "earn money". She finally "escaped" to England for an interview at Oxford.

An easy read and well told story. I finished it whilst travelling to Malta and back. A little repetitive at times, but then I guess that is the point. The 10 years were not all fun and games. At all.