Wavewalker: THE INTERNATIONAL BESTELLING TRUE-STORY OF A YOUNG GIRL’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND EDUCATION

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I started thinking again about my past when my children were old enough to ask me about it. Did Dad really sail around the world because he wanted to honour Captain Cook? Why didn’t my parents, middle class and well educated themselves, worry about their children’s education or social isolation? Why was my relationship with my mother so difficult, particularly during my teenage years, and why didn’t my father try to help, when he must have seen how miserable I was?

The family set off from Plymouth in 1976, but did not return, as promised by her father Gordon Cook (no relation to Captain Cook), in three years. They spent more than a decade roaming the world, most of it in the South Pacific, covering 47,000 nautical miles, always moving on, always flat broke; a deeply dysfunctional unit of four. Like many others here on Goodreads, I was gripped by the excerpt of Wavewalker in The Guardian. Despite having no particular interest in sailing, biographies, or the major events that occurred before I was born, there was something about that excerpt that made me want to buy this book on the day it was released - and I did. He turned to lean over his chart. “It’s not good,” he said. He spoke the words quietly, as if to himself. Wavewalker’s quivering moments at the summit of each wave had become longer, and her plunges forward more extreme. Everything felt wet: my skin, my clothes, my hair, the floor and every surface I touched. In Hawaii, the months turned into years while Dad tried various schemes to raise money, including working in a boatyard, setting up an exhibition on our trip and asking for donations. My 12th birthday came around and I gave up counting the days in my diary. I was learning nothing and was going crazy with boredom, since my parents – for reasons I never understood – had decided not to send us to school.Heywood is ‘a bit nervous’ about his reaction to the book. ‘He can be quite aggressive. But I decided long ago that writing a version that didn’t upset them would be so neutered that it would almost not be worth writing.’ Sue had suffered a fractured skull but Gordon was able to patch up the boat well enough to get to Isle Amsterdam where a French military doctor operated on his daughter. Ah,” he said, “we have a draw.” He looked at Jon and me, and I sat up straight, ready to explain my choice. Like Tara Westover’s seminal memoir Education, Heywood makes fierce and heroic efforts over the years to educate herself, seeing it as a way of escape from family entrapment. (Unlike Westover, however, the writing itself is not as memorably compelling, although the narrative is, if overlong.) At one point, aged 16, Heywood is left alone for months with her brother in New Zealand, while their parents try to make some money by voyaging with more paying crew. Against truly remarkable odds she is granted an interview to Oxford, and then a university place. We set off again. After a brief classroom experience in Queensland, Australia, some months later, I registered with a correspondence school, but finding the space and time I needed to study on board Wavewalker became a huge battle. My parents had by then started bringing paying crew on to the boat – advertising our voyages as “whale and dolphin sighting expeditions”. This turned our boat into a floating hotel in which I was expected to cook and clean for several hours a day. In addition, after I reached puberty, my relationship with my mother had deteriorated and she often didn’t talk to me for weeks on end, instead only referring to me in the third person, as if I was not there. I was trapped on Wavewalker against my will, with parents who didn’t seem to care how unhappy I was

I did also feel that at this time (the 70s and 80s) children generally didn’t get a say in how their family was run or what they did. Especially girl children. So some of what happened was culturally normal, it was just that Suzanne’s parents (actually her father) just chose a more radical and unusual route and lifestyle than most. He shook his head. “If they’re not in New Zealand, I can only extend your visa by two weeks. You’re a minor: you can’t stay here alone.” He looked at me, his face expressionless. “No. They’re worse. They’re now over 50ft high. And the wind has changed direction to blow at storm force straight from the south pole.” She now has a new partner, James, in business like her and father to three teenage boys. They met via the internet a year or so ago, when she felt ready. Her children, Jonny, 21, and twins Lizzie and Peter, 19, are all at university – Cambridge and Oxford – which her husband did not get to see. ‘That is hard,’ she says.

I found the book a little slow at times but mostly gripping as I wanted to find out that Suzanne would be ok even though I knew she must be. Her situation seems so hopeless at times, her vulnerability frightening. I found myself judging Gordon and Mary pretty harshly and thinking of my own parents and my own children and how much I take for granted. All the times I might have thought my own parents didn't go the distance for me seem so small compared to Suzanne's experience. I found myself questioning if I've ever put my children's needs so low in my priorities and wondering how these people thought it was ok. But then again there are certainly worse parents who are actively abusive towards their children and Gordon and Mary certainly cared for their kids enough to ensure they had their physical needs met - most of the time.

This book is intriguing, sad, infuriating, astounding in its content and a story of a very brave child in a family that is not very caring if her. Well,” he said, after a long pause. “I guess I have no choice. I’ll move the money into the account.” I read it cover to cover in just a couple of days. I couldn't put it down; I was up until 2am, too gripped to stop reading. When Gordon and his family set off on his schooner Wavewalker in 1976, the plan was to spend three years on the trip. Don’t worry, Sue,” he said. “I’ll ring whenever we get to a major port. And our friend Pam will help you if you need it.”My fear felt physical – a cold lump I carried in my stomach. Every so often, if the wind wailed or our movement down a wave was particularly steep, my heart pounded and my legs felt weak.

Gordon decided to heave-to with the undamaged port side of the hull facing the oncoming waves. This was achieved but not without considerable difficulty and with the assistance of a makeshift sea anchor. Gordon received his award over 30 years after the incident in 1977 following many years living and sailing overseas. I caught my breath and kept answering the counsellor’s questions: “No, I’m not going to school. I sit here on my own all day, trying to teach myself.” My voice quavered. Designed especially for marine operations in rough seas, surf, intertidal and shallow transition zones, ecologically sensitive areas, and on beaches; WaveWalker 1 offers flexibility and efficiency when working in areas typically affected by weather and tides, by delivering a safe, secure solution for marine operations. I slumped against the seat. Mum folded a sheet of paper into quarters, ripping it along the creases. She pushed the pieces across the table towards us.A couple of months later, Dad announced another decision – Jon and I were going to live in Rotorua on our own, so that Jon could start going to a school there. I would continue to learn by post, Dad told me, and would be responsible for looking after Jon, who was by then 15. When Wavewalker was repaired, he would start his job and come to live with us, while Mum kept sailing Wavewalker with another skipper, to make more money from paying crew.