Category: Read

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation.

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own #6Degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on X using the hashtag #6Degrees.

We begin the year with a wildcard which means starting with the final book in our December chain. In my case that was The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

The French Lieutenant’s Woman is set in Lyme Regis, Dorset which is also one of the locations in Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last completed novel. It’s a story of second chances in which Anne Elliot and naval officer, Captain Frederick Wentworth, meet again years after their engagement was broken off because of family pressure.

Another book featuring a sea captain is The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. Captain Ericson (memorably played by Jack Hawkins in the film version) commands the corvette Compass Rose, assigned to escort Atlantic convoys and protect them against German U-boat attacks during World War 2.

Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian, set in the early years of the 19th century, features Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend ship’s surgeon, Stephen Maturin. Aboard their ship, the HMS Sophie, they become involved in numerous sea battles.

A very similarly named character appears in Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier. Jaded by court life in Restoration London, Lady Dona St. Columb flees to Cornwall where she encounters and falls in love with Jean-Benoit Aubéry, a French pirate. She joins the crew of his ship disguised as a boy.

In The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse, the third book in the Joubert Family Chronicles, Louise Reydon-Joubert is determined not to let her gender prevent her achieving her ambition to become captain of her own ship.

At one point in The Ghost Ship, a mysterious vessel is seen floating silently on the water, evoking an image of the Mary Celeste, a merchant ship discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean in December 1872. J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement is an 1884 short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle loosely based on the mystery of the Mary Celeste. It purports to be an eye-witness testimony of the end met by those on the mysterious “ghost ship”. (Bonus facts courtesy of Wikipedia: In the story the ship is called the Marie Celeste, a misnaming which has become common, initially the story was published anonymously, and some – including one newspaper – mistook it as a true account.)

Ahoy there, a chain with a very nautical theme.