Author Gillie Bowen’s new novel, ‘White on Wight’, has just been published by Bowood Publishing, and is now available from Amazon Books
In the early nineteenth century, there was no cure for smallpox. When most of his household succumb to the dreadful disease, Tom White is left to run the family boatyard on his own.
His young wife dead and his business in tatters, he bundles his three young children into a boat and sets sail for the Isle of Wight to start a new life.
His dream to build a steam-driven ship of controversial design to conquer the waves is further complicated by juggling an embryonic business with the duties of rearing a young family.
This book is based on the real life story of Thomas White, a boat builder from Kent, fighting for his life at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in war-torn Britain.
Tom White was the author’s first cousin, seven times removed. He was the nephew of Mary White, her seventh great-aunt, a courageous woman who saved the lives of many sailors from shipwrecks off the coast of Kent. She also built ‘The Mary White’, a rescue boat that was the forerunner of many such boats built by Culmer White. You can read her story in ‘The Mary White,’ first published in October 2020 by Bowood Publishing, and also available from Amazon.
