Publication Date: October 24, 2023
‘Grippingly vivid and pacey’ THE TIMES
‘A seven-year old girl on a seventy-foot yacht, for ten years, over fifty thousand miles of sailing … a fantastic story of a truly Odyssean journey across all the world’s great oceans – but is also the inspiring story of the developing of a restless and inquiring mind’ SIMON WINCHESTER
‘An astonishing almost day-by-day account of [a] hazardous journey and its legacy’ TELEGRAPH
‘This is a story of an epic childhood journey, so exciting and so shocking it is hard to know whether you’re reading about a dream or a nightmare… Wavewalker is thrilling, horrifying, beautifully written – I couldn’t put it down’ ED BALLS
Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children.
Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water… At seventeen Suzanne earned an interview at Oxford University and returned to the UK.
From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?, Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child’s worst nightmare – and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape
‘A classic memoir of childhood. This is a book that every parent should read to consider the consequences of their midlife crises, and every child should read to learn how to deal with impossible mums and dads, as well as boils and barnacles’ Mail on Sunday 5*
‘An electrifying story about an extraordinary childhood, and Heywood tells it with remarkable clarity and assurance . . . an engrossing book that pitches the reader into the highs and lows of a young life spent in the “Wavewalker School of the Sea”’ TLS
At age 7, the idea of leaving England to sail around the world seemed like an adventure. However, when that three-year trip turns into a decade, Suzanne Heywood realizes just how much she and her little brother have sacrificed.
Suzanne tells her story in Wavewalker, a meticulously detailed account of the journey organized by location with a notation of Suzanne’s age and the trip’s timeframe.
Through a young girl’s eyes, it would have been easy to get pulled in by her father’s enthusiasm to allegedly recreate Captain Cook’s third voyage. That trip, by the way, required sailing the wrong way around the world, crossing the world’s roughest oceans with the most rudimentary of technology.
An adult would easily realize that her father wanted an adventure where he could buck authority at every turn. Her mother, with whom she had a tenuous relationship, juggled seasickness with an abundance of alcohol.
The author’s recitation of events, both while sailing and at the many ports along the way, serves as a rich backdrop. While the children initially thought their mother would be teaching them while sailing, it soon became apparent that formal education was not a priority for the parents.
Essentially, the story builds on the concept of the children being trapped within their father’s dream of adventure and their mother’s participation. Suzanne’s desire for a normal life lights the spark that enables her to eventually break free, but it comes at a hefty cost.
From start to finish, this was a fascinating story that delved deeply into family relationships while taking readers on an incredible tour around the world.
Wavewalker will leave readers marveling at the tenacity of a young girl determined to chart her own course for the future.
Suzanne Heywood was born in the UK but for most of her childhood sailed around the world with her family, with limited access to formal education. She came back to the UK aged 17 and won a place to study at Oxford University. After her PhD at Cambridge University, she joined McKinsey and Company where she became a senior partner. She is now a managing director of Exor and chair of CNH Industrial. She married the late civil servant Jeremy Heywood in 1997 and they have three children.
Sounds good!!