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The Yachtsman Volunteers

1. The Cruise of Naromis: August in the Baltic 1939
   by GA Jones

2. Man the Ropes: The Autobiography of Augustine Courtauld—Explorer, Naval Officer, Yachtsman
   by Augustine Courtauld

3. From Pole to Pole: The Life of Quintin Riley 1905–1980
   by Lieutenant General Jonathon Riley

4. Maid Matelot: Adventures of a Wren Stoker in World War Two
   by Rozelle Raynes

5. We Fought Them in Gunboats (HMS Beehive Edition)
   by Lieutenant Commander Robert Hichens DSO* DSC**

Even before the outbreak of World War Two, yachtsmen began offering their services to the Navy. They formed the Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve (RNVSR), a unique group of amateur sailors whose willingness to serve—and their individual achievements—has often been overlooked. These memoirs tell their stories.

You may also be interested in Uncommon Courage: The Yachtsman Volunteers of World War II by Julia Jones, a study of the RNVSR as a whole, published by Adlard Coles on March 17th 2022.

Lionesses of the Sea

1. When I Put Out to Sea
   by Nicolette Milnes Walker

2. My Ship is So Small
   by Ann Davison

3. The Sea Bird
   by Rozelle Raynes

Strong Winds

1. The Salt-Stained Book

2. A Ravelled Flag

3. Ghosting Home

4. The Lion of Sole Bay

5. Black Waters

6. Pebble

7. Voyage North

   by Julia Jones

Francis Wheen

Books

Francis is an outstanding biographer and cultural commentator. His prize-winning biography Karl Marx: A Life has been translated into 20 or so languages and his Marx’s Das Kapital: A Biography has admirers world wide. Francis’s first major success was his 1990 biography of Tom Driberg and his 2002 title Who Was Dr. Charlotte Bach? continues to appeal to lovers of the eccentric.

Francis’s collected journalism 1991-2001 Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies won the 2003 Orwell Prize. His two volumes of cultural commentary How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World and Strange Days Indeed: the Golden Age of Paranoia have achieved international success.

Articles

Francis has written for Private Eye magazine for more than thirty years and is its deputy editor. Currently he contributes regular book reviews to the Mail on Sunday and also to the Literary Review, the Spectator and the Oldie.

Francis’s first job was as an office boy on the Guardian. Then, after leaving university he worked on the New Statesman magazine. He was one of the founding journalists on the Independent and has written for most national newspapers, particularly the Independent, the Observer and the Guardian where his ‘Wheen's World’ column won the What the Papers Say Columnist of the Year award in 1996. He has also been a regular columnist for the London Evening Standard.

Julia Jones

Books

Julia has published both fiction and non-fiction titles and also titles where her input has been editorial. She is the author of the Strong Winds series, illustrated by Claudia Myatt. They also worked together to produce Please Tell Me and Please Tell Me More. As a biographer she has written The Adventures of Margery Allingham (first published by Heinemann as Margery Allingham: A Biography) and Fifty Years in the Fiction Factory: the Working Life of Herbert Allingham. Her editorial input is particularly significant in the 4th edition of The Oaken Heart and in The Cruise of Naromis: August in the Baltic 1939. Beloved Old Age and What to Do About It is (in part) an autobiographical account of her experience as a dementia carer.

Articles

Julia is the literary contributor to Yachting Monthly. She also writes regular feature articles for the magazine as well as for other nautical and special interest publications including Marine Quarterly, Classic Boat, Classic Sailor and the journals of the Arthur Ransome Society. Her articles have appeared in the Daily Mail, the Oldie and the Lady as well as in various health and social care journals. Previously she was a regular book reviewer for the TES.

Julia enjoys blogging. She posts on the Authors Electric blogsite on the 9th of each month and regularly on the John’s Campaign site.

Sailing

The company name is an amalgamation of Francis and Julia’s boats - Goldenray and Peter Duck. (They acknowledge the cricket reference but were glad not to be out first ball.) The Strong Winds series of sailing adventure stories can be enjoyed by older children or adults. The Cruise of Naromis: August in the Baltic 1939 by G. A. Jones is a non-fiction account of a pre-WW2 adventure. Boats are never far away from marine artist Claudia Myatt’s Keeping a Sketchbook Diary.

Dementia

Golden Duck has published two activity books in support of John’s Campaign: Please Tell Me: A Book to Give and Please Tell Me More: A Book to Share. These are intended for people living with dementia and their relatives or professional carers to enjoy completing together. (Free page downloads are available from John’s Campaign site.) These books offer a supportive format for anyone to record their memories or make a personal scrapbook-style collection. NOT Forgotten Lives: Felixstowe 2017 was produced for the Felixstowe Book festival and is also available on the John’s Campaign site. In Beloved Old Age and What to Do About It Julia Jones, caring for her mother, learns from Margery Allingham’s experience caring for her older relatives.

The Allinghams

Golden Duck’s first publication (back in 2009) was a paperback edition of Julia’s 1991 biography of Margery Allingham. Cheapjack, the quirky fairground memoir of Margery’s brother Philip soon followed, then a a fully annotated and illustrated new edition of The Oaken Heart — a classic of wartime social history. Fifty Years in the Fiction Factory: The Working Life of Herbert Allingham is both a biography of Margery’s quietly influential father and also a significant contribution to the history of reading. Margery’s The Relay (her last completed book, never published in her lifetime) was handed on to Julia Jones, who expanded the work into Beloved Old Age.

Other Titles

Golden Duck is especially proud to have re-published Jan Needle’s Wild Wood (a richly comic retelling of Kenneth Grahame’s classic The Wind in the Willows illustrated by Willie Rushton). It’s soon to become both a play and a BBC Children’s series.