To celebrate the publication of The Path to the Sea I’ve asked some authors about their turning points. Today John Jackson talks about his change of course…

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

(John Masefield – Sea Fever)

All of us have to choose a different path, or, as we say at sea, Change Course as some stage. When I left school I worked in a Bank for a year and hated it. All of that money, and none of it mine!

I had to fine something else and got the idea of going to sea. My grandfather had been at sea, going sealing in the Antarctic, and taking a barquentine from Mauritius to Australia and back. My Grandmother’s honeymoon was on board that ship.

Two months later in January 1996 I found myself going to sea as a cadet with a company called Lamport & Holt Line, on the first of many trips down to South America. I remember being paid the marvellous sum of 15 guineas a month, plus 3/2p an hour overtime! We used to work every hour God sent for that money.

Going to sea in those days really was a great career. South America’s east coast was alive! We used to get occasional time off, and we could go exploring on the local buses. We were all very much footloose and fancy free, and yes, it’s true – we did all have a girl in every port. Who knows, at some stage in the future I may even write about it. The problem is, who would believe the stories!

MV Ronsard, Liverpool, 1967ish

Time passes, a change of company or two, and I was sailing on the RFA Bacchus, a naval stores freighter. We had a party on board one night in Chatham, and who came on board with a gaggle of girls from the local hospital, but Pamela. We are still together forty-five years later.

RFA Bacchus, in Valetta, Malta

Some changes of course are forced on us. Not long after getting married, I broke my leg playing rugby. I was forced to leave ships flying the British flag and went to work for the Germans. They didn’t require such stringent health checks. Pamela came away with me, and, on a later ship, DD1. As well.

MV City of Watterscheid, 1978

The last major change of course took us to York, where we life in a very busy and happy retirement. Coming here was the first time in our lives when we could change course solely to please ourselves. Coming here led me to start writing, and brought me into a whole new range of friends, With their support, help and encouragement, I picked up my pen, and Heart of Stone, my first novel, was published at the end of 2017.

John Masefield absolutely got it right with Sea Fever and Cargoes, I lived and worked through some of the very best times to be at sea.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,

With a cargo of Tyne coal,

Road-rails, pig-lead,

Firewood, ironware, and cheap tin trays.

John’s latest book…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-Stone-John-Jackson-ebook/dp/B074L68VL3

Dublin, 1730

When young and beautiful Mary Molesworth is forced to marry Robert Rochfort, widowed heir to the earldom of Belfield, she finds that her idea of love is not returned. Jealous, cruel and manipulative, Robert ignores her after she has provided him with a male heir, preferring to spend his nights with his mistress. Power-hungry, Robert builds up a reputation that sees him reach for the highest positions in Ireland.

Caught in an unhappy marriage, Mary begins to grow closer to Robert’s younger brother, Arthur. Acknowledging their love for each other, they will risk everything to be together. But Robert’s revenge threatens their lives and tears them apart.

Will Mary and Arthur find a way to escape Robert’s clutches?

Based on real events, Heart of Stone is a tale of power, jealousy, imprisonment, and love, set in 1740s Ireland.