Whoever Fears the Sea, Justin Fox [i love reading .TXT] 📗

through World War II and although each novel in the series may be read as a stand-alone, the next one will follow on directly in time from The Cape Raider. It will tell the story of U-boats off the South African coast during the winter and spring of 1941, attempting to disrupt Allied convoys bound for North Africa. Jack and his ship, the Gannet, will head to sea once more to try to stop this mortal threat.

In this series, I have chosen a British hero and placed him on a South African ship in a Royal Navy base at the Cape. It has provided me with the opportunity to marry parts of my own background: my time in the South African Navy as a citizen-force officer, my university education in England and my love of the Cape and its stormy ocean.

Since I was a boy, I’ve adored nautical yarns and grew up reading the likes of Alexander Fullerton, Nicholas Monsarrat, Patrick O’Brian and Douglas Reeman. But I always lamented the fact that none of these naval adventures were set in my home, the Cape, despite the presence of an important Royal Navy base in Simon’s Town. The Jack Pembroke series is an attempt to bring the South African maritime story of World War II to life. Future books could see Jack serving in the Mediterranean at Tobruk, Malta, Sicily and Greece, and even in the oft-forgotten Madagascar campaign.

Nowadays, reviews by knowledgeable readers are essential to an author’s success, so if you enjoyed Whoever Fears the Sea I shall be in your debt if you would spare a moment to post a short review on Amazon or Goodreads. I love hearing from readers, and you can connect with me through my Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter or my website.

I hope we’ll meet again in the pages of the next Jack Pembroke adventure on the high seas.

Justin Fox

ALSO BY JUSTIN FOX

 

FICTION:

The Cape Raider

 

NON-FICTION:

The 30-Year Safari

My Great Expedition

Mijn Kleine Safari

Secret Cape Town

The Impossible Five

Unspotted

The Marginal Safari

Africa Lens

Cape Town Calling

Under the Sway

Just Add Dust

With Both Hands Waving

The Life and Art of François Krige

Revel Fox: Reflections on the Making of Space

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the many people who made my various journeys along the coast of East Africa possible. In particular, I’d like to thank David Beavan and Shallo Issa for the voyage on the dhow Jannat from Lamu. I’d also like to thank Patrick Latham and his production team on the documentary series Winds of Change. Friends and family read the manuscript and made invaluable suggestions. A special thanks to JM Coetzee, Imraan Coovadia, Revel Fox, Petina Gappah, Catherine Hofmeyr, Christopher Hope, Don Pinnock, Robert Plummer, François Smith and Polly Taylor. Without the teams at Sapere and Umuzi, this book would still be bobbing face down off Mombasa: thank you to my wonderful publishers Amy Durant and Fourie Botha, and my brilliant editor, Henrietta Rose-Innes. A special thanks to my indefatigable agent, Aoife Lennon-Ritchie.

My gratitude, also, for the use of dialogue based on William C Atkinson’s translation of The Lusiads by Luis Vaz de Camões. And for the quotation from ‘Utendi’ by Mwana Kupona binti Msham, sourced from UCLA’s Swahili Poetry Archive.

Although this is a work of fiction, many texts were consulted. The following were particularly useful: Deadly Waters: Inside the Hidden World of Somalia’s Pirates by Jay Bahadur, East Africa and the Orient by Neville H Chittick and Robert I Rotberg (eds), ‘The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expeditions in the Early Fifteenth Century’ by JJL Duyvendak, The Swahili Coast, 2nd to 19th Centuries by GSP Freeman-Grenville, Dhows at Mombasa by John H Jewell, Fort Jesus by James S Kirkman, The Thousand and One Nights by Muhsin Mahdi, Sailing from Lamu by AHJ Prins, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama by Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Sons of Sinbad by Alan Villiers and ‘The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?’ by Mohamed Abshir Waldo.

A number of songs are referred to or quoted in the text, and I gratefully acknowledge the following:

Kikki Danielsson and Dr Alban, ‘Papaya Coconut (Come Along)’ (lyrics by Dr Alban), SDS Records, 1998

Whitney Houston, ‘My Love is Your Love’ (lyrics by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis) from My Love is Your Love (Arista, 1998)

Bob Marley, ‘Buffalo Soldier’ (lyrics by Bob Marley and Noel G Williams) from Confrontation (Tuff Gong/ Island Records, 1983) and ‘Redemption Song’ from Uprising (Tuff Gong/Island Records, 1980)

Safari Sound Band, ‘Jambo’ (aka ‘Jambo Bwana’, lyrics by Teddy Kalanda Harrison) from Mambo Jambo (arc, 2001)

Published by Sapere Books.

20 Windermere Drive, Leeds, England, LS17 7UZ,

United Kingdom

saperebooks.com

 

Copyright © Justin Fox

Justin Fox has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.

eBook ISBN: 9781800552906