Sailor’s Heart
True courage is facing danger when you are afraid.
Based on true events.
1942.The war at sea is being lost. One per cent of all naval personnel are being referred as psychiatric casualties. The British Admiralty introduces the Stone Frigate approach.
Three men fight for their country in the Arctic convoys of World War II, then for their sanity and dignity, labelled as cowards and subjected to experimental psychiatry at an isolated facility set up by the British Admiralty to recycle men back into battle.
To the Navy they are faulty parts, not constitutionally suited to operate at sea. To the public they are poltroons, malingerers and psychiatric cases.
The places in this story are real, but everyone who played a part in what happened is now dead. It is safe to tell what really happened. What was important then, nobody cares about now.
True courage is facing danger when you are afraid, surviving in the circus of war.
What people are saying…
Book of the Week, Dundee Courier and Evening Telegraph:
“Campbell’s extensive research into the institutions, Sailor’s Heart itself, and the awful conditions and experiences of naval warfare in the Arctic shine through.
A combination of fictional novel, documentary and extrapolation of research makes this an interesting read, which often had me reaching out to the internet. to determine which was which!”
Review, The Herald and The National online:
“Itʼs sometimes hard to tell where fact ends and fiction begins in this fascinating and highly readable novel. Campbellʼs imaginative flights are as wickedly convincing as his historically accurate detail. The chapters give the impression of being written by someone with first-hand knowledge of serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. The minute details of living and working at sea during wartime are woven expertly into each manʼs story, in immersive detail, without the reader ever feeling on the receiving end of an info- dump.”
Book of the Month, Yachting Monthly:
“Sailor’s Heart is not a polemic.
It’s a satisfying novel on many levels, perhaps less about courage than bedrock survival of the individual human psyche, the capacity for endurance and resilience, the mutual support – and the little bits of luck, which may help damaged people through darkest times..”
— Julia Jones, publisher and author of the Strong Winds series“
”Excellent. Always looking for stories of the unheralded and unknown. One of the best books I have read in a long time.”
— Rona Simmons - Author of The Quiet Room and A Gathering of Men.
“This is a story you will want to read more than once. It is gripping, it is painful, it has humour and it has a raw reality that only those who have been there will fully recognise.”
— Bernard Bale, Herald journalist and former BBC broadcaster
“Sailor’s Heart is a tale of comradeship forged and survival found under unique and difficult circumstances during WW2. A story of men broken in different ways as they sailed in the Arctic Convoys of WW2, their ships being hunted down by U-boats and bombed by the Luftwaffe. I thoroughly recommend this book. It is damn good read that casts a light on the dark parts of the human condition.”
— 5 star review in Amazon.co.uk
The Courier
Saturday April 23. 2023
