I’m reading a fascinating novel just now. It’s On Wilder Seas by Nikki Marmery. What an absolutely fabulous cover!
The narrator is Maria, an enslaved woman who shares her experiences of living on the Golden Hind for nine months. Meticulously researched, Nikki Marmery allows Maria to live and breathe where nothing is noted about her in the records besides the dates she boarded and left the ship. The action takes place in 1579 during Francis Drake’s circumnavigation voyage. Maria is a lone woman amongst eighty sailors. Determined to become free, Maria uses tenacity and quick thinking to her advantage.
Many of you will know there is a reconstruction of the English galleon that has been berthed at St Mary Overie Dock in Southwark since 1996. Whenever I walk past this full-size reconstruction of Golden Hind I am reminded of how compact the ship appears. Goodness knows how Maria coped! Since the launch of the reconstruction in 1973, the galleon has sailed more than 140,000 miles to San Francisco, Japan, the Caribbean and other destinations. Impressive!
I will be interested to meet Nikki Marmery online when we appear alongside Karen Havelin on the Debutants panel at the Stockholm Writers’ Festival on Friday 22 May 2020. We are all previous attendees of the festival and have had our debut novels published in the last year. Join us at what is now known as the #StuckHomeWritersFestival here.
the writer is a lonely hunter 
This sounds like an astounding story and I’ll definitely check Nikki’s novel out. Thank you for the heads up, Gail 🙂