Thrown in at the deep end

FANCY AN EPIC ADVENTURE FROM YOUR SOFA? Claire allfree PICKS FIVE BRILLIANT NOVELS THAT ARE SET AT SEA

The aubrey/ Maturin novels by Patrick O Brian 1969-99

Even readers allergic to the very idea of Napoleonic war fiction succumb to Patrick O’Brian’s 20volume series of nautical adventure, which, while abundant with descriptions of rigging, are really about the magnificently well-rendered friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey and his naval surgeon (and secret agent) Stephen Maturin. By the end of the first you are aboard the ship with them. By the end of the fourth, it feels as though you are inside their very souls.

Sea Wife by amity Gaige 2020

A trip of a lifetime sailing around the Central American coast turns into disaster for Juliet, Michael and their two young children in this skilfully navigated thriller which, while needling away at ideas of marriage and personal freedom, is particularly excellent on the day-to-day confinement of life aboard a small yacht in the middle of a turquoise sea.

The riddle Of The Sands by erskine Childers 1903

Erskine Childers’ espionage novel, in which a fishing trip around the Frisian islands turns into a gripping adventure involving a German plot to invade Britain, influenced not only writers such as John Buchan and Ian Fleming but contemporary military planners, who read it as a timely wakeup call to bolster North Sea defences.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 1851

There is no such thing as a list of novels set at sea that doesn’t include Melville’s magisterial masterpiece. Captain Ahab’s vengeful obsession with destroying the great white whale becomes a spiritual journey into the meaning of life itself aboard whaling ship the Pequod in this tumultuous mix of salty detail and existential grandeur, which ranks as one of the greatest American novels of all time.