On the Water: The Yachting Muse - Hardcover

In this splendid anthology Michael Gilkes presents a fascinating selection of literature inspired by man's perennial enthusiasm for 'messing about in boats'. His choice is rich and varied, covering a wide range of human experience. There is delicious humour from Jerome K. Jerome, danger and suspense from Erskine Childers, drama and tragedy from W.H. Murray, supernatural mystery from 'Veritas' and poignant recollection from E.Arnot Robertson. Not surprisingly, the authors he has chosen all display a profound devotion to life on the water - whether it be the gentle inland waterways of Great Britain or the great oceans which surround this island. The sea and man's struggle with it is gloriously delineated in all its many moods - for this struggle is also a love-affair - but so is the more civilized (one might almost say indolent) pastime of the river-boater. A strong narrative thread characterises the extracts that Michael Gilkes has skilfully chosen. Each one is a 'page-turner': the reader hooked almost at once, then carried inexorably forward by the sweep of the writing. Whether you are a yachting enthusiast or a mildly interested onlooker - or even if you have never been in a boat in your life - you will find these pages a source of excitement, diversion and inspiration.

Michael Gilkes was educated at Bedales School, Hampshire, and St Edward's School, Oxford, before training as a surgeon at St Thomas' Hospital. His first post was as Ship's Surgeon and Station Medical Officer for South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Whaling Fleet, a position he held for two years before becoming House Surgeon at the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital in Greenwich. His specialist interest, however, was the treatment of eyes and he was a consultant surgeon at the Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton for thirty years, during which time his duties took him to Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as a visiting consultant and examiner. Michael Gilkes has extensive yachting experience including dinghy racing, ocean racing and cruising. In 1966 he took part in the Transatlantic Race. He is a Life Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Senior Member of the Royal Cruising Club. He has served as Librarian of the Royal Cruising Club, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and on the Library Committee of the Cruising Association.