Well I am still feverish, pale and coughing like a cat with a mouth of hot pepper! Also very bored sometimes when my headache prevents further reading. On such occasions I read and re-read Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/ Maturin series of books set in the early 19th century aboard various HM ships of war. O.K. I know what you are thinking but these are sea adventure books with a real difference. O' Brien was fluent in several languages, a classicist and the biographer of Picasso and the great British botanist Joseph Banks he also brings to the stories a phenomenal knowledge of the 18th/19th century and the ships and language of the era.
I have a passion for sail boats and the sea........... how could I not be brought up in Plymouth? Reading one these sea tales spirits me aboard one of the huge ships of the time and I am plunged into this strange arcane world of ropes, sails, unpredictable weather and at times violent action.
There are the long sea chases the taste of salt spray the cut of ropes and the wide wide wide desperate ocean where the horizons are circles of nothingness. What better cure for a sick man than O'Brien in full flight?
Looking forward to seeing you all at next LB on 27th Feb.
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