How To Build A Boat: A Father, his Daughter, and the Unsailed Sea

The book tells the story of a man who builds a traditional wooden boat as a gift for his newborn daughter, despite having no experience or practical skills. The journey begins with a search for clues in the creeks and backwaters of his beloved Suffolk, where men once fashioned the might of Nelsons navy. The book follows the bestselling footsteps of Adam Nicolson, Tim Moore, and Charlie Connelly, exploring what makes modern man tick through the discovery of a craft long forgotten.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 320 pages
\n Publication date: 04 April 2019
\n Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
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The passages he addresses directly to Phoebe are as tender as the father-daughter letters in Karl Ove Knausgaards Seasons Quartet Times Literary Supplement. This book tells the inspiring story of how even the least skilled of us can make something wonderful if we invest enough time and love. The Daily Mail. Both the book and place are magical. The Sunday Telegraph. When Jonathan Gornall decided to build a boat for his daughter, he had no experience and no practical skills. What followed was a very real labor of love. The Scotsman. One man learns the ancient skills of boat-building to connect with fatherhood. How to Build a Boat is the story of a thoroughly unskilled modern man who, inspired by his love of the sea and what it has taught him about life, sets out to build a traditional wooden boat as a gift for his newborn daughter. It is, he recognizes, a ridiculously quixotic challenge for a man who, with a family and mortgage to support, knows little about woodworking and even less about boat-building. He is not even sure what type of boat he should build, what type of wood he should use, the tools he will need, or, come to that, where on earth he will build it. He has much to consider, and even more to learn. But, undaunted by his ignorance, he embarks on a voyage of rediscovery, determined to navigate his way back to a time when a man could fashion his future and leave his mark on history using only time-honored skills and the ancient tools and materials at hand. The journey begins with a search for clues in the once bustling, but now still, creeks and backwaters of his beloved Suffolk, where men once fashioned the might of Nelsons navy from the great oaks that shadowed the waters edge. If all goes to plan, it will end with a great.

\n Weight: 228g\n
Dimension: 130 x 198 x 20 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781471164811\n \n