DEBUT NOVEL INSPIRED BY LANCASTRIAN SEAFARER

A budding author is making waves in the literary world with an unforgettable and gripping novel inspired by the story of a Lytham St Anne’s maritime veteran.  86-year-old merchant seaman Brian Clarke is a survivor from the sinking of the British merchant ship SS Sithonia in World War II. Now his reminiscences have been brought to life through a fictional drama written by Lancashire born novelist Sara Allerton.

A leading contender for the People’s Book Prize over the summer, ‘Making Shore’ is a searing tale of fear, friendship and survival. Torpedoed by a German U-Boat and adrift on the open ocean, the central characters are gravely weakened and slowly dying of thirst.  As the odds of making shore gradually lengthen, it becomes clear that their deliverance from a decaying lifeboat will depend on something far more remarkable than sheer endurance. Woven into the epic drama is a profoundly moving love story.

"Brian is an old family friend and though I had always been aware that he had survived a terrible ordeal during the war, I had no idea of its extraordinarily rich potential as the basis for a novel," explained Sara Allerton.  "In consequence, we had many long and detailed conversations about his experiences and in writing Making Shore, I tried to capture the essence of Brian’s story and weave together its horrors with the emotional drama it inspired in me.”

The novel took 2 years in all for Sara to write, starting with interviews with Brian and including many painstaking hours of research into the history of the Sithonia, Merchant Navy vessels and World War II Atlantic operations.  Brian was keen to highlight the great risks taken by Merchant Navy sailors to support the military war effort and keep supply lines open across the vast expanse of the Atlantic. He is thrilled with the result and has written his own endorsement which features in the book.

"Sara Allerton has a rare gift for words and she was unencumbered by my reluctance to revisit the raw terror, the descent into near madness or the endless tedium of my days on the doomed Sithonia’s lifeboat.  She fell upon the idea of making a novel out of it with unbridled enthusiasm and came up with Making Shore – in my opinion, a masterly piece of work.”

The book has already won critical acclaim amongst some well-known media figures from a range of different fields, including former cabinet secretary Lord Butler of Brockwell, the BBC's news anchor Edward Stourton, and eminent historian Andrew Wheatcroft.

"This is a brilliantly conceived story of endurance and romance, in which Sara Allerton's mastery of detail and sympathy with her characters fully engage the reader,” said Lord Butler. “It held me enthralled until the last sentence."

Edward Stourton added:- “Sara Allerton's novel is a remarkable imaginative achievement - she takes you every inch of the way on this extraordinary journey across the Atlantic; it is a compelling story of both shame and heroism.”

Bound for Montevideo with a cargo of coal, the Sithonia sailed on 2 July 1942, initially as part of Convoy OS.33. Ten days later she was sunk some 350 miles west of the Canary Islands by 2 torpedoes from U-201, one of a wolf pack of German U-Boats which operated in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II.

Brian Clarke lives in Lytham St Annes with his wife Edith and has four sons and five grandchildren. He served six years in the Merchant Navy as a radio-telegraph operator from 1942 to 1948. During the war, Preston was home to the best radio-telegraph school in the north of England. Brian signed up for a course and was then assigned to his first ship by the Marconi company.

Sara Allerton was born in Lytham St Annes. She is the daughter of former England rugby captain John Willcox and the niece of champion equestrian Sheila Willcox.

For further information about the book, visit:- youtube.com

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SARA ALLERTON’S ‘MAKING SHORE’:-

“I don’t cry much over books, but this one brought a great lump to my throat. It is an extraordinary story – the grim face of war, chirpy unassuming courage, and running through, the need to keep faith whatever the cost. In the end, I did weep, but not from sorrow or despair.”  Andrew Wheatcroft, author of ‘The Enemy at the Gate’.

“This breathtaking debut novel deals with man's harrowing struggle for survival in a hostile sea, but this book is so much more – a life-affirming account of love, camaraderie, anguish and coming of age, played out against a backdrop of the Atlantic swell. Making Shore is destined to become a true maritime classic.”  Angus Konstam, author of ‘Sovereigns of the Sea’, ‘Piracy’ and ‘Naval Miscellany’.

“The profoundly moving story of a brotherly bond forged in unimaginable wartime suffering, of the bitterness of a terrible promise honoured, and, above all, of the hope-giving, life-sustaining selflessness of true love. Making Shore is a powerful and remarkable novel.”  Clare Gibson, The Army Children Archive.