BOOK OF THE WEEK

Sailor’s Heart by Martin Campbell; Mighty Pens; £11.95

The title’s explanation is given as: A man at sea losing his interest in the battle, then in the will to fight, or the will to live.

The prologue follows, giving us a picture of the Navy’s

attempt to treat and cure Sailor’s Heart

in the 18th Century. Haslar hospital’s block F contained numerous psychiatric cases, and Dr Dowden-Ballard uses them to test out his theories on both cause and experimental treatment of the illness.

The subsequent main story turns to the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, and three characters who served in them.

Firstly, Clarence, who drifted into engineering through happenstance and discovered that he was a mechanical genius. After being awarded a “war degree” from Glasgow University, he was rapidly processed through naval training before being posted to action in the Arctic. The horrific death of a colleague unsettles his mind and he is hospitalised.

Secondly we encounter Marco, a circus clown and acrobat. At the start of the war he continues his career, but eventually decides to join up. Following a short basic training, he is posted to a gunnery crew in the Arctic. Bullying and the pressure of war at sea result in illness.

The final character is Duncan, who signs on for the Navy and goes through basic training on the Isle of Man, followed by SONAR training in Campbeltown and the inevitable posting to the Arctic. The death of his brother, combined with experience in the convoys causes Duncan to go AWOL – from which he was easily retrieved.

All three are hospitalised at the “Stone Frigate”, HMS Standard, a land-based hospital facility built in Kielder. As there had been at Haslar, there is a psychiatrist, Commander Ballard, whose orders are to rehabilitate as many of his patients as he can. As with his antecedent he has experimental treatments to try, and an overwhelming ambition for success.

Both Haslar and HMS Standard existed – Haslar is now retirement flats, and HMS Standard now under Kielder Water. Campbell’s extensive research into those institutions, Sailor’s Heart itself, and the awful conditions and experiences of naval warfare in the Arctic shine through, particularly in the rather lengthy explanatory sections of this book.

A combination of fictional novel, documentary and extrapolation of research makes this an interesting read, which often had me reaching out to the internet

to determine which was which!