Best sailing books: Immerse yourself in one of these 10 sailing novels
From spy thrillers and historical novels to childhood classics, escape with our pick of the best sailing books. How many have you read?
Need some inspiration for your reading list? Look no further! We have something for everyone… no matter what their age.
With each sailing book is a ‘Buy Now’ link. If you click on this then we may receive a small amount of money from the retailer when you purchase the item. This doesn’t affect the amount you pay.
Stormchild – Bernard Cornwell
Tim Blackburn becomes a widower when his wife dies in a yacht explosion in the Channel.
Police discover the yacht was bombed and suspect Tim’s estranged daughter, Nicole, could be behind the bombing.
But Tim has not seen Nicole since she joined the outlawed environmental organisation Genesis.
To prove the police wrong, Blackburn goes in search of his daughter in his yacht Stormchild, on a voyage that will take him from England to the Caribbean and the depths of South America.
If you like Stormchild, you might also want to read Cornwell’s other sailing novels – Crackdown, Scoundrel, Wildtrack or Sea Lord (published as Killer’s Wake in the US)
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
The Happy Return – C.S. Forester
The first published novel in the Horatio Hornblower canon, although it is the fifth book in the series, The Happy Return follows Hornblower’s command of the frigate HMS Lydia.
Hornblower has instructions to form an alliance against the Spanish colonies with a mad and messianic revolutionary, El Supremo; to find a water route across the Central American isthmus; and ‘to take, sink, burn or destroy’ the fifty-gun Spanish ship of the line Natividad – or face court-martial.
And as if that wasn’t hard enough, Hornblower must also contend with the charms of an unwanted passenger.
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
The Master Mariner – Nicholas Monsarrat
From the author of the classic World War II naval novel, The Cruel Sea, The Master Mariner follows the story of a young Devon sailor, Lawe, who is cursed after a spectacular act of cowardice to “wander the wild waters till all the seas run dry”.
Written in two volumes, the story covers the history of maritime development, from Sir Francis Drake preparing to fight the Spanish fleet to the 1960 opening of the St Lawrence Seaway.
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Summer holidays certainly evoke nostalgia and what is more nostalgic than revisiting that childhood classic which got you into sailing in the first place!
Arthur Ransome’s story about the adventures of the Walker children in the Lake District in 1929 is still as entertaining as ever.
Swallows and Amazons was also turned into a film in 2016.
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
Skeletons for Sadness – Ewen Southby-Tailyour
Edward Casement and Heather Cooper are flung together on a charter for the Governor of the Falkland islands.
When the Argentine invasion comes, they find themselves drawn into the ensuing conflict – but who is on which side and who can be trusted?
Written by retired Royal Marine and sailor, Ewen Southby-Tailyour, who extensively chartered the waters around the Falkland Islands while stationed at the British Overseas Territory, and assisted British Forces during the Falklands War, this novel will grip you till the very last page.
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
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Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian
The first novel in the Aubrey-Maturin epic series, set during the Napoleonic Wars.
Follow the Royal Navy’s Jack Aubrey as he takes command of his first ship, the Sophie, and his first meeting with doctor Stephen Maturin.
Sea battles and and experience as a French prisoner-of-war follow.
If you particularly like the Napoleonic Era, you could try Alexander Kent’s Bolitho series, Dudley Pope’s Ramage or the William Bentley series by Jan Needle.
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
Great Circle – Sam Llewellyn
A bestseller when it was first published, the Great Circle is a novel about a yacht race of the same name.
The instructions are simple: sail round the world, leaving the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn to port.
However, finishing the race is not so easy. Participants have to not only content with the challenging weather, but also with their personal demons.
If you enjoy reading Full Circle, pick up one of Llewellyn’s other sailing thrillers, which are set around the fishing village of Pulteney and are, according to the author, designed to “give you all the thrills of yachting with none of the excess moisture, and to keep your heart in your mouth long past your bedtime.”
Try Dead Reckoning, Blood Orange, Blood Knot, Riptide or Maelstrom.
This Thing of Darkness – Harry Thompson
Packed full of action, vivid characters, ideas and explorations of science and religion, this historical novel was longlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize.
It’s 1828. Brilliant young naval officer Robert FitzRoy is given command of HMS Beagle, surveying the wilds of Tierra del Fuego.
During the voyage, FitzRoy takes a passenger, the trainee cleric and amateur geologist, Charles Darwin.
This is the story of the friendship between the two men and how, ultimately, it is torn apart.
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
The Riddle of the Sands – Erskine Childers
Childers’ classic novel was immensely popular in the years before World War One and is considered the spy novel which established the genre.
Two young sailors notice dubious German naval activities and find themselves in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and intrigue which could soon lead to war.
The novel is noted for its characterisation and richly authentic background of inshore sailing, as well as its vivid evocation of the late 1890s and its prediction of the First World War.
Buy it now at Waterstones (UK)
Challenge – Warwick Collins
The year is 2000. The US Ambassador in Moscow receives an extraordinary message from the USSR – to challenge for sailing’s most prestigious prize – the America’s Cup.
Each country is determined to win this “war without blood”, and will push all those involved to the limits.
Follow the drama of match racing to its chilling conclusion as the superpowers start to look for new ways to express their status.
Part of a trilogy, if you love Challenge you’ll love reading the follow ups: New World, which tracks the fortunes of the Estonian America’s Cup helmsman, Ivan Illich, and Death of an Angel, which follows the Estonian America’s Cup team in 2003.