Do you feel empathy for the hero of your book?
Aldiss: Yes I do. His story is the story of many of my generation. His world was a world full of change, broken cities, relics of war. The term ‘teenager’ had not been invented and certainly the concept that youth might be a time of enjoyment and optimism had not percolated down to the old men who ran every aspect of the ‘system’. The story is absolutely historically accurate.

What dominating emotion do you believe people will take away from the book?
Aldiss: The longer one lives the more one comes to believe that humans are the playthings of fate. I write to entertain, to inform and to amuse. Perhaps as the reader recalls the now disappeared life of the British Merchant Seaman there will be some amusement, and perhaps, again, a sense of loss that all our centuries of seafaring are gone as completely as the horse drawn carriage.

Were did the inspiration for the story come from?
Aldiss: The inspiration came from my own experiences aboard Greek owned coal burning tramp ships on two-year voyages when I was in my teens. (I had gone to sea in place of military service.)The language; the characters; the ports of call were a kaleidoscope of inspiration and glitteringly different experience.

Do you believe that James’ experiences represent youthful fantasy?
Aldiss: The past, as they say, is a different country. Youth, and for that matter old age is filled with fantasies, but to those who grasp opportunities, or travel hopefully fate offers interludes that remain forever golden. The British war wives on their way to Australia were real young women, on the road to the unknown, lonely anonymous, and bored in a male world, devoid of men. Hesta may not have been a padre’s wife, or she may have been. The girls in Genoa are no doubt all grandmother’s now but James could, might, did perhaps experience a vast amount of fun, even while pining for the unloyal Prudence.

Or does the book lament the loss of working class existentialism?
Aldiss: The book is fiction, but in a small way also a true memorial to the thousands of brave men who coped with depressions, unemployment, death, over work, and foul weather all with a vast ‘hard knock ‘existentialism which the colourless society ashore did not understand. The book laments that passing.

Did you enjoy writing the book?
Aldiss: Unequivocally yes. The book that is in some way a witness’s account was not easy to write, but the characters walked out the pages. When I hesitated they told me to ‘Put up or shut up.’ The memories of long gone girls propositioned me in the streets of disappeared seaports. Lost ship mates offered ‘bevy’s’ and the bells rang the hours of every watch in the long sea voyages shovelling coal. Every day of writing was a joy.