Journey to the Sea Read online

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  About the Book

  About the Authors

  Title Page

  Introduction

  SARAH BROWN

  ‘Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt’

  CHRIS HOOPER, Executive Director, SOGB

  Momento

  ANDREW MOTION

  Smiles

  ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH

  Living Every Second

  TRACY EDWARDS

  Faith and Hope Fly South

  JOANNE HARRIS

  In Praise of Narbonne Plage

  FI GLOVER

  First Sea Lord

  ADMIRAL SIR ALAN WEST GCB DSC ADC

  The Beach Butler

  RUTH RENDELL

  Our Surfing Roots: Or why it ain’t just a waste of time

  ALEX DICK READ

  Contemplating Ithaca

  MARY LOUDON

  Kyle

  GERVASE PHINN

  The Sailing Life of Randall Willey

  JAMES LANDALE

  Christmas at Sea: Suhaili, 25 December 1968

  SIR ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSTON

  A World in Pieces

  JULIE MYERSON

  Don Redondo Goes Surfing with Bob Dylan

  DREW KAMPION

  Family Holiday

  MIKE GAYLE

  Journey to the Sea

  LIBBY PURVES

  The Naiad

  SARAH WHITELEY

  Counterworld

  RUSSELL CELYN JONES

  The Wisdom of the Lighthouse Keepers

  PETER HILL

  Three Women, and Something Else

  ERICA WAGNER

  The Calling

  ALLAN WEISBECKER

  Reading Connemara’s Coastline

  JOSEPH O’CONNOR

  Biographies

  PiggyBankKids

  Special Olympics Great Britain

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  Whether it is memories of childhood holidays or exotic fantasies of faraway places, a sea and its coast forms the most evocative of landscapes. Combining elements of romance, danger and mystery, it provides the perfect inspiration for this unique collection. The finest writers from our water-bound nation, including Alexander McCall Smith, Ruth Rendell, Joanne Harris, Joseph O’Connor and Libby Purvis, give us their accounts of adventures and chance encounters, short stories and non-fiction pieces representing the many facets of the sea’s power that will haunt and inspire. The collection also includes gripping accounts of real-life adventures on the ocean from such experienced sailors as Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West and Tracy Edwards.

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Sarah Brown, wife of Gordon Brown, is President of the charity PiggyBankKids, which she founded in 2002. PiggyBankKids has launched the Jennifer Brown Research Fund to seek solutions to pregnancy difficulties and help save newborn lives, and supports a wide range of charitable projects which create opportunities for children and young people. Sarah and Gordon live in Fife and London with their sons.

  Gil McNeil is Publishing Director for PiggyBankKids and has worked in advertising, the film business and publishing. She is the bestselling author of The Only Boy for Me, Stand by your Man, In the Wee Small Hours and Divas Don’t Knit. She lives in Canterbury with her son.

  Hugo Tagholm is Programme Director for PiggyBankKids. Hugo has worked in public relations and events management with a wide range of organisations, including the National Gallery, the Art Fund and the BBC. He lives in Camden Town and spends most of his spare time wakeboarding or chasing waves along the north Devon coast.

  This anthology has been compiled and edited by Sarah Brown, Gil McNeil and Hugo Tagholm. PiggyBankKids will be supporting Special Olympics Great Britain with the publication of this book, and will receive £1 for every copy sold.

  For further information please contact:

  PiggyBankKids

  16 Lincoln’s Inn Fields

  London WC2A 3ED

  www.piggybankkids.org

  Journey to the Sea

  Edited by Sarah Brown, Gil McNeil and Hugo Tagholm

  INTRODUCTION

  SARAH BROWN

  Most of us have childhood memories of time spent by the sea, from holidays to day trips, in sunshine or stormy weather, and damp sandwiches and sandy blankets usually play their part in these memories. At various times in my childhood my brothers and I holidayed at North Berwick, Hunstanton and Walberswick, Brighton and Llandudno, burying each other in the sand or skimming stones across the water; and now when I take a break from 11 Downing Street to go to Scotland with my family, one of the things I look forward to most is the view over the Firth of Forth. The sight of water when you wake up in the morning is definitely good for the soul. The sea also has a wider role in our collective heritage than simple reminiscence and relaxation; from Coleridge’s Ancìent Mariner, alone on his ‘wide wide sea’, to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, from the history of heroic figures like Admiral Nelson and Grace Darling to the stories of Dunkirk and the folklore of fishermen and lifeboat crews, our history is full of the brave adventures of our island race. Stories of people who push themselves to the limit, facing great peril and encountering great beauty. People who conquer overwhelming odds but never give up, like the people I met when I attended the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin last year. The Games were the culmination of the year-round training and competition undertaken by people with a learning disability, and I was struck by just how inspiring the opening ceremony was, seeing seven thousand athletes from over a hundred and fifty countries proudly marching behind their country’s flag. Not only for those taking part, but also for their families and carers, who got to see so many people who at first glance might not appear destined for glory being brave enough to give it a go, and bringing a real sense of achievement both to themselves and to everyone associated with their efforts. It was a real privilege to be there, and after meeting the team at Special Olympics Great Britain everyone at PiggyBankKids was determined to help them in their efforts to increase the number of athletes, coaches and volunteers and to improve the quality and range of sports on offer.

  Since I launched PiggyBankKids in 2002 we have raised over a million pounds for our ongoing projects, including the Jennifer Brown Research Fund which supports a perinatal research laboratory based at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. We have worked on partnership projects with other charities to support mentoring and volunteering, family services, and advice for one-parent families. Last year we launched our new fundraising initiative, The Big Night In, which will help us fund all our core projects and enable us to expand the range of charities we help. Our aims at PiggyBankKids are simple: to support and strengthen charities working to improve opportunities for children and young people across the UK. So we are especially proud to be working with Special Olympics Great Britain, which has such a positive approach to providing ever greater facilities for their young people and creating an environment that encourages previously unimaginable achievements.

  Thank you so much for buying this book and helping us to raise funds to promote the important work of Special Olympics Great Britain. I would like to thank my coeditors, Hugo Tagholm, our Programme Director at PiggyBankKids, who’s a keen surfer, and Gil McNeil, our Publishing Director, who is still trying to get the sand out of the back of her car after her son discovered the joys of surfing last summer. Most of all I would like to thank our brilliant writers, who all so generously agreed to donate their work for free. I am sure you will enjoy reading their fantastic stories as much as I have.

  Sarah Brown

  PiggyBankKids

  February 20
05

  ‘LET ME WIN, BUT IF I CANNOT WIN, LET ME BE BRAVE IN THE ATTEMPT’

  CHRIS HOOPER

  Executive Director,

  Special Olympics Great Britain

  TO COMPETE WELL in any sport, or indeed in life itself, requires inspiration, determination, confidence and self-belief. For the average person the road often seems tough, but the attainment of success is even more of a challenge when you have a learning disability. For those with a learning disability the true ideals of sportsmanship still exist and it remains an honour to compete, irrespective of the final result. The skills of winning and losing are taught to us all at a young age, but it is rare to find the qualities needed to accept defeat in the able-bodied population.

  To witness seven thousand athletes from all over the world competing at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin in the summer of 2003 was incredible. This was the biggest sports event in the world in 2003, and with teams from Afghanistan to Australia it was truly global. The games were officially opened by Nelson Mandela in Croke Park stadium in Dublin, which was filled to capacity. Twenty-six different sports were contested. It was the pinnacle of years of preparation, and the realisation of a lifetime’s dream for the athletes and their families.

  This was so much more than a sports event – this was an opportunity for people with learning disabilities to make new friends, to gain confidence and to experience new cultures. Many of the athletes had never been away from their home villages and towns, let alone travelled to the other side of the globe. The Irish people embraced the games, and as a result many more learning-disabled people have been given the opportunity to get involved, as well as significant numbers of new volunteers eager to assist.

  For many, of course, the World Games will always be a dream – the 400-metre race at the local park will be the height of their athletic achievement, but for them this will be just as special and just as defining.

  The key to the success of Special Olympics is the extent of its reach beyond the sports field and the opportunities it can open up for people who have previously led sheltered lives and who have no belief in their own abilities. Many athletes are trained in leadership and are given the platform to become self-advocates and spokesmen and women for the organisation. Sport is a vehicle to achieve so much more in life – and it is not only the athletes who benefit. I have seen parents, siblings and teachers touched through their involvement and the success of others.

  As Georgina Hulme, Special Olympics ambassador and athlete, says, ‘As well as swimming, for the last twelve months I have also started coaching the young beginners at the end of every session, and it is very exciting to see their progress. Some of them, if not all, will be good enough to take part in galas this year. It is fair to say that my training through sport and the Special Olympics has allowed me to become more able to deal with other important matters in my life, particularly college work. Special Olympics has helped me to achieve many of my dreams and ambitions.’

  In Great Britain, Special Olympics is still relatively small, with only five thousand athletes taking part in regular training and sports competition. Potentially, however, there are over a million learning-disabled people in Great Britain, and over the next couple of years it is our goal to recruit another five thousand into the programme. The focus of the growth will be among the school-age population in order to get young parents and volunteers involved whose energy can drive Special Olympics forward.

  Sailing and kayaking are both very popular sports within Special Olympics, and I know that the anecdotes and memories recalled in this book, from some of our greatest mariners, will provide great inspiration to our athletes. We are a nation surrounded by the sea, a treasure that has protected us and provided pleasure over many generations.

  The next National Summer Games for Special Olympics GB will take place in Glasgow, 1–9 July 2005. The games are expected to attract three thousand athletes with learning disabilities, together with a thousand coaches and at least three thousand parents, carers, supporters and friends, from nineteen regions throughout Great Britain. Over the eight days, the athletes will compete in twenty-three sports at eleven venues in and around the city of Glasgow.

  The opportunity to be the beneficiary charity from the sales of this wonderful book is fantastic, and I would like to sincerely thank Sarah Brown and PiggyBankKids for supporting Special Olympics.

  MOMENTO

  ANDREW MOTION

  I have forgotten the beach

  Where I knelt in the blinding wind,

  And this perfectly round white stone

  Rose glittering into my reach.

  Here it is now on our shelf

  Like an egg, or an eye, or a clue

  Dropped from the lips of the sea

  To something besides itself.

  Yes I have forgotten the day,

  The sun, the wind, the waves,

  And even your loving look –

  But I still took something away.

  SMILES

  ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH

  SHE ARRIVED IN bangkok not knowing what to expect. Her husband knew the place, as he had made a number of business trips there over the years.

  ‘You’ll be happy there,’ he said. ‘I promise you. People are. And the Thais are very friendly. You’ll see.’

  ‘But the traffic,’ she said. ‘And all that noise. The children . . .’

  He touched her arm in reassurance. ‘There’s traffic in Sydney too, remember. And the children will be fine. The firm will provide us with a maid – two, if you want. You’ll have all the help you need with the children.’

  He had been right. She liked living in Bangkok, and soon stopped missing Sydney, where they came from. It was easy to keep in touch with Australian friends, too, as they were often able to break their overseas journeys with a stop in Bangkok.

  ‘They stay the perfect length of time for guests,’ she wrote in a letter. ‘Three days to catch up on things and then they move on. Guests are like fish, aren’t they? After three days they begin to go off.’

  Her husband enjoyed his job. He was now in the highest echelons of an international firm of accountants, and he had been put in charge of the Bangkok office. They mixed in elevated financial circles, with parties and receptions at the houses of Thai plutocrats. They were popular in the society of the capital, and being photogenic her picture often appeared in the pages of the Bangkok Tatler. She went to charity auctions and fashion launches at the silk houses. And he liked this. ‘It’s good for business for you to be seen,’ he said. ‘Consider it work. Enjoy yourself.’

  By the end of their fourth year there, when the boy was fifteen and the girl thirteen, they had become so established that the prospect of returning to Australia seemed something remote. Yes, they would go back, but not in the immediate future. The children had learned Thai and had their friends in Bangkok. They were doing well at their international school. They had better manners than their Australian contemporaries, and they had picked up that subtle physical grace which the Thais have. Australian teenagers seemed so ill at ease in the space they occupied, and were so gauche.

  Then, on a Friday afternoon in the monsoon season, just as a heavy purple cloud was building up over the northern fringes of Bangkok and the air was heavy and humid, a woman from the office knocked at the door. She let her in and could tell immediately that something had happened. The Thais smiled in a particular way when they were distressed, and this was such a smile. It was always misread by foreigners – farangs as they called them – but she understood it very well and did not misinterpret it now. Something very serious had happened. He’s had an accident, she thought immediately. It’s happened.

  Every eight hours, somebody is killed in a traffic accident in Bangkok, so dense is the volume of cars, trucks, motorcycles. He had been in the car with his driver, apparently, and they had turned a corner into a narrow street. A small elephant and its keeper, a man from a hill tribe in the north, had been crossing the sma
ller road and the car had hit the elephant. The driver had been relatively unharmed, but her husband had been badly cut about the neck by flying glass. He had been dragged out, bleeding, and because there was no ambulance service to speak of had been put into a motorbike taxi, a túk túk, and driven to a nearby clinic, his driver trying to staunch the bleeding from his neck. He died in the brightly painted túk túk as it bumped its way along the pot-holed road.

  There was an outcry from the firm and from those who had been campaigning to rid the city of elephants. ‘They have no business in the city,’ said a prominent member of the city administration. ‘This is another example of what happens when you allow elephants to roam around in the city. These people who bring them in must be punished severely.’ She did not want anybody to be punished. She saw a photograph in the Bangkok Post of the elephant that had caused the accident, and of his keeper, who looked so small beside his charge, and so intimidated by the presence of the two policemen in the background. The elephant’s left foreleg, facing the camera, had a large gash in it, a laceration caused by the impact with the car. She stared at the photograph, and then turned the page quickly. But she turned back to the photograph and looked at it again, noticing the details, the shirt worn by the keeper, and the Buddhist amulet around his neck. He might have thought that this amulet had saved him, and made a victim of her husband instead, an anonymous farang whose car was going too fast anyway.

  She could not go home. Her parents, who were retired and living in Melbourne, came over to stay with her, and helped. They urged her to return to Australia.

  ‘You have to do it for the sake of the children,’ they said. ‘Think of them. What are they going to do here?’

  ‘But it’s for their sake that I’m staying,’ she said. ‘Look at them. They have all their friends. They’re happy here. I don’t want to uproot them.’