Celebrating Rozelle Raynes: North in a Nutshell

I walked into my parents’ bedroom one morning in 1968 to find my father clutching a bright yellow hardback among the usual chaos of newspapers, post and the remains of breakfast. This was Rozelle Raynes’s first book North in Nutshell. I can’t remember if he’d been sent it for review or as a gift from the author. What has stayed with me to this day was how honoured he felt by this friendship and how much he admired Lady Rozelle. This was a feeling shared by many yachtsmen of that time – though she was never a sailing celebrity.

North in a Nutshell was her first book, written with the confidence that had come from her happy second marriage to Dick Raynes in 1965. It describes a three-month exploration of the Norwegian coast in a 25’ Folkboat with a Seagull outboard engine. It’s adventurous and admirable though in my opinion the trip she’d done single-handed to Russia in 1959 was a greater achievement thought she didn’t write about it until 20 years later in The Sea Bird. (1979)

At Golden Duck we’re working on a new edition of Maid Matelot which we hope to publish in time for the Suffolk and the Sea Day June 25th. Is that her best book - I’m not sure? The Tuesday Boys is also special and I’ve recently read 27 Kisses, her account of housing 4 families of Croatian refugees.

Over the next few months I’ll contribute some reflections on this and other of Lady Rozelle’s books. She was always self-effacing but doesn’t deserve to be forgotten. Her friend Richard Woodman has contributed an appreciation which we’ll share in Maid Matelot but for now I’ll just indulge myself with that happy memory of the day North in a Nutshell arrived in our home - 44 years ago!