Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
Written by Michael Morpurgo
Narrated by Emilia Fox and Tim Pigott-Smith
4/5
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About this audiobook
How far would you go to find yourself? The lyrical, life-affirming novel from the bestselling author of Private Peaceful.
There were dozens of us on the ship, all ages, boys and girls, and we were all up on deck for the leaving of Liverpool, gulls wheeling and crying over our heads, calling good-bye, I thought they were waving good-bye. None of us spoke. It was a grey day with drizzle in the air, the great sad cranes bowing to the ship from the docks as we steamed past. That is all I remember of England…
When orphaned Arthur Hobhouse is shipped to Australia after WWII he loses his sister, his country and everything he knows. The coming years will test him to his limits, as he endures mistreatment, neglect and forced labour in the Australian outback. But Arthur is also saved, again and again, by his love of the sea. And when he meets a nurse whose father owns a boat-building business, all the pieces of his broken life come together.
Now, at the end of his life, Arthur has built a special boat for his daughter Allie, whose love of the sea is as strong and as vital as her father's. Now Allie has a boat that will take her to England solo, across the world's roughest seas, in search of her father's long-lost sister… Will the threads of Arthur's life finally come together?
Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain’s best-loved writers for children. He has written over 130 books including War Horse, which was adapted for a hugely successful stage production by the National Theatre and then, in 2011, for a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Michael was Children’s Laureate from 2003 to 2005. The charity Farms for City Children, which he founded thirty years ago with his wife Clare, has now enabled over 70,000 children to spend a week living and working down on the farm. His enormous success has continued with his most recent novels Flamingo Boy and The Snowman, inspired by the classic story by Raymond Briggs. He was knighted in 2018 for services to literature and charity.
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Reviews for Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
8 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book, lots of tense moments. This book tells two stories about two kids on different journeys.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was sad at times but still very good
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I very much enjoyed this. Both narrators were likable and believable, though I preferred Arthur's story to the diary/email format of Allie's. Some aspects of Arthur's story could probably have benefitted from a little more detail, as it felt a bit rushed toward the end, but this is explained in the book and will probably make the story more approachable for younger readers. In general, though, this first part of the book tells an engaging and emotional story. Allie made a far more interesting character than I first predicted she would, and the format of her section was less irksome than I usually find diary-style, which I am glad of, as it could have easily spoiled an otherwise pretty excellent book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love Michael Morpugo's books. They make me cry, however, they are beautifully written and always have an interesting moral ending.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This is the life story of a boy who is shipped to Australia from the UK at the beginning of the twentieth century. He moves around Australia, always wanting to return home to find his sister. He doesn't make it but his daughter does, she sails single-handed to Britain and the story of this voyage takes up the second half of the book. The split narrative didn't really work for me, first we have the whole life of a man skimmed over and then a lengthy account of a ship journey of the daughter. I didn't believe in the characters and their emotions particularly and felt several interesting areas, for example the man's experiences in the Vietnam War, were given only a few sentences when they could have been explored in more depth. Also not sure how interesting the younger teen audience whom it is aimed at would find it. Disappointing.