‘The passages he addresses directly to Phoebe are as tender as the father-daughter letters in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s 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 labour of love.’ The Scotsman

“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. 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 Nelson’s navy from the great oaks that shadowed the water’s edge. If all goes to plan, it will end with a great little adventure, as father and daughter cast off together for a voyage of discovery that neither will forget, and both will treasure until the end of their days.

Pages: 320, Year of Publication: 0404, Dimensions: 13x13cm