Wavewalker: Breaking Free

by Suzanne Heywood

Overview

‘A jaw-dropping and thrilling real-life adventure on the high seas for a girl who just craved normality and finally found her way back to it’ SARAH BROWN

Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children.

Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water… At seventeen Suzanne earned an interview at Oxford University and returned to the UK.

From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?, Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child’s worst nightmare – and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008498498
Publisher:	HarperCollins UK
Publication date:	04/13/2023
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	387,948
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.44(h) x 1.56(d)

About the Author

Suzanne Heywood was born in the UK but for most of her childhood sailed around the world with her family, with limited access to formal education. She came back to the UK aged 17 and won a place to study at Oxford University. After her PhD at Cambridge University, she joined McKinsey and Company where she became a senior partner. She is now a managing director of Exor and chair of CNH Industrial. She married the late civil servant Jeremy Heywood in 1997 and they have three children.

Editorial Reviews

EARLY PRAISE FOR WAVEWALKER

‘I once said my top priority was education, education, education, and this powerful book shows why. In the most difficult circumstances, trapped at sea on a boat, surviving violent storms, Suzanne has demonstrated how education can transform a life’ Tony Blair

‘A seven-year old girl on a seventy-foot yacht, for ten years, over fifty thousand miles of sailing: Suzanne Heywood’s utterly captivating account is, yes, a fantastic story of a truly Odyssean journey across all the world’s great oceans – but is also the inspiring story of the developing of a restless and inquiring mind. A wonderful, unforgettable book that I urge everyone to read’ Simon Winchester

‘Even for an experienced sailor, a ten-year voyage across some of the world’s most dangerous oceans would give pause for thought. That Suzanne survived this and made her way back to dry land and a successful future is remarkable. Her book is stunningly good’ Ranulph Fiennes, World's Greatest Living Explorer,

‘This is a story of an epic childhood journey, so exciting and so shocking it is hard to know whether you’re reading about a dream or a nightmare… Wavewalker is thrilling, horrifying, beautifully written – I couldn’t put it down’ Ed Balls

‘Her fight for an education will astonish all who read it’ Anthony Seldon

‘An extraordinary story of adventure and self-discovery’ Minouche Shafik

‘A jaw-dropping and thrilling real-life adventure on the high seas’ Sarah Brown

‘The story of extraordinary upbringing on a boat in the South Pacific recounted with wit, verve and deep insight… Humanity’s innate passion for learning shines on every page and triumphs gloriously’ Sir Michael Barber, author of Accomplishment: How Ambitious and Challenging Things Get Done

From the Publisher