The best books about fishermen

Over 500 boys aged between 14 and 16 were killed at sea while serving in the British Merchant Navy during World War ll. Including John E Atkins, aged 15, of the barge Rosemary, who lost his life while evacuating troops from Dunkirk and Reginald (Reggie) Earnshaw just 14 years old when he was lost at sea. 

Kevin Fife is a 14-year-old who keeps getting into trouble with the authorities. After minor altercations with the police, the magistrates do not agree that his ‘offences’ are only boyish mischief and send Kevin off to sea as an alternative to Borstal (Correction House) under the ‘Jail or Sail Policy’. This novel follows Kevin facing the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy between January 1940 and January 1941.

Attempting to escape his abusive father and generations of cyclical poverty, young Jonah Hargrove joins the mysterious River -- a teenage girl carrying thousands of dollars in stolen meth -- and embarks on a southern gothic odyssey through the East Texas river bottoms. They are pursued by local drug kingpin, John Curtis, and his murderous enforcer, Dakota Cade, with whom River was romantically involved. But Cade and Curtis have their own enemies, as their relationship with the cartel controlling their meth supply begins to sour.

With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into a sinister and sanguinary world, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the hope of something greater.

The Grim Reaper comes for us all eventually. When he comes, how do we know it is the real deal? After eons of acting as Death, Grim has turned his job into the Afterlife’s best profession. He also ushered in an era of commercialization in the realms of the dead. Grim is now the CEO of Death Incorporated, Death Inc. for short. Milo Anderson is Death Inc’s newest recruit, but when he botches his first Reaping, it sets off a chain of events throughout the Veil of Souls that will leave the Afterlife reeling with the fate of the Universe on the edge of oblivion.

Can Milo complete his task and bring balance back to the Veil? Or will the Morningstar finally have his revenge and his place atop the throne?

My poetry book Siren published by Broken Sleep Books takes the siren, often used interchangeably with mermaid, as a starting point. But Sirens were originally Persephone’s handmaidens, turned into half-women, half-birds to search for her after she was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. Beginning with a sequence of poems on the mermaid, I also explore figures from Buddhist myth such as Manohara, the winged Kinnari, and the Biblical Lilith among other manifestations of the ‘monstrous’ and hybrid feminine.

Gita Ralleigh is a fierce and shining poet, unafraid to find resistance and beauty in the darkest places. In these wild, febrile poems, she overlaps myth, violence, and enchantment until they gleam like scales. Liz Berry, author of The Republic of Motherhood.

This is the kind of environmental history that describes changes to the world’s forests, fields, soils, lakes, rivers, water quality, air quality, wildlife, and cities—and tries to explain why those changes happened. It argues that the middle of the twentieth century marked a turning point in global environmental history because the scale, scope, and pace of environmental change accelerated markedly. The key reasons for that acceleration lay in the world’s energy system with fossil fuels at its center, in a sudden surge in population growth, in a relentlessly competitive international system, and in the resistance of economic management to ecological thinking. Even though the Times of London listed it among the best science books ever written, it’s a history book.  

On her way to school with Mum, a young girl notices her Granny's house has been sold. Mum tries to explain that Granny is fine but the young girl is upset and imagines Granny sad and all alone. Mum promises that they will see Granny on the weekend.

The weekend finally arrives and the young girl is excited. She hopes her poor old Granny has not been sad and miserable in her new home...

You might have never sewn, might have hated sewing at school, or might think it is something only women do but Threads of Life will change your idea of why sewing matters. Tracing the stories of people who sew – through centuries and across cultures – this is a book that explores the political, social, and emotional significance of needlework. From the shell-shocked soldiers of the First World War to women smuggling out patchworks to tell of atrocities in Chile during Pinochet’s Reign of Terror; from the intricate pictorial quilts made by 19th-century tailors to the therapeutic needlework undertaken by those suffering from mental or physical frailty you will find moving and heroic tales of how people have used needle and thread to find a voice.

In a rhyming romp through dinner, the future leader of the Roman Republic learns to eat a balanced meal and finish everything on his plate.

It’s time for little Julius, who will grow up to become the most powerful person in ancient Rome, to put on his toga, attend the dinner banquet, and eat his oysters, boiled camel’s feet, baked dormouse, and peas! It’s tough finishing everything on your plate—for kids and future caesars, alike.

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She must find water and food. She must survive. And when she is there, she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard. And so is being honest about what happened before. Slowly, Frances learns to survive and see that the future is worth fighting for.

The Island is a gripping and thoughtful story about a girl who didn’t choose the life she has but digs deep to become the person she always wanted to be. All is not lost but some things are hard to find.

Kasali Adebayor, a prominent farmer in the city of Akure, a husband of five wives, fancies himself as an activist for good governance while wielding the big stick of patriarchy over his family members. In the fast-changing African political landscape Kasali's family comes under the spotlight; an exposure which—initially appealing and addictive—threatens everything he holds dear and secret. Kasali's daughter who has been a secret rebel in her father's Akure enclave visits her aunt in Monrovia, gets drunk on her freedom, and is soon caught in the web of violence that engulfs Liberia's Glay presidency. 

Kasali Adebayor, weak against the subtle feminism-inspired request of his of beloved wife Mojisola, ends in a dead end that brings out the worst in him, and begins the end of Kasali's Africa.