Voyage of the Sparrowhawk

I’ve become distrustful of books that arrive with their front and back covers groaning with gushingly approving quotes. Three such recent purchases have just left me scratching my head and wondering whether the reviewers and I have read the same book.

This is most definitely NOT the case with Voyage of the Sparrowhawk. This story of two children sailing a narrowboat to France just after the First World War has winning heroes, hissable villains, vivid descriptions – you can almost feel the storm in the English Channel – and moves at a breakneck pace. Yet that fast pace never stops Natasha Farrant from constantly offering brief but memorable descriptions, such as this one:

The man's name was Nathan Langton. He walked with a stick, and he had a beard and a soft felt hat and an old dog called Bessie who farted a lot.

That's the only physical description of Nathan we get, but it's enough to bring him - and Bessie - to life and make the reader trust him as much as the main young character.

I could go on citing examples but that would be boring. All I'm going to say is that this book really does deserve all the praise heaped upon it.