It’s 1972, and a young British couple revolts against conventional suburban life. They sell their possessions and build a boat, intent on sailing to New Zealand. But a whale upends their plans – their boat sinks and they find themselves in a brutal endurance test. Floating in a life raft in the Pacific Ocean, they kill sharks with their bare hands, fish with safety pins, befriend (and eat) sea turtles and struggle to stay alive. But it’s not just a survival story; it’s a moving tale about marriage, boredom and making the best use of time. It brought me back to the pandemic and what it felt like to lose track of days. This is a true story, beautifully written by Sophie Elmhirst, who pored over logbooks and journals documenting all 118 days of the shipwreck.
"It’s 1972, and a young British couple revolts against conventional suburban life. They sell their possessions and build a boat, intent on sailing to New Zealand. But a whale upends their plans – their boat sinks and they find themselves in a brutal endurance test. Floating in a life raft in the Pacific Ocean, they kill sharks with their bare hands, fish with safety pins, befriend (and eat) sea turtles and struggle to stay alive. But it’s not just a survival story; it’s a moving tale about marriage, boredom and making the best use of time. It brought me back to the pandemic and what it felt like to lose track of days. This is a true story, beautifully written by Sophie Elmhirst, who pored over logbooks and journals documenting all 118 days of the shipwreck."
"The early months of the year are grey and muddy in my corner of the world and it’s fun to dream of adventure in the year ahead. Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmshirst is about an ordinary couple from Derby who set out to sail around the world in the early 1970s. The reason we know about them is that theirs turned into a survival story: their boat was sunk by a sperm whale and they were left adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 118 days. It’s an easy and engaging read: I started it one evening after dinner and stayed up to finish it just after midnight."
