An account of the adventures of a young man in the sea faring world of sixty years ago..
This the third novel by Ben Aldiss is a book packed with vivacity and verve.

Life has to be lived to the full, and maybe to be understood deeply. That’s the focus of Ben Aldiss’ novel and also of his protagonist, James.

The novel traces the steps of a young man who embarks on a wide-ranging yearlong tramp ship voyage and follows his adventures along the way. At each port there is some hidden gem, as James’ mission becomes not merely a physical one, but one of self-discovery. He will realise who he actually is, how the world around him is and what he wants from life.

This is a story that follows the shaping of personalities, James’ and that of his far away girl friend Prudence. The story captures a flavour of the seamen’s world now gone.

Set in the lost era of coal burning merchant ships, Sell the Pig and Buy me Out is akin to a modern day Roderick Random. We empathise with James’ emotions and find ourselves tied inextricably to his fate. The book traces James’ experiences of hedonism, poverty, passion, pain, anger and sexual fulfillment, culminating in an earned sense of acceptance on his return home to his by no means faithful girl friend Prudence.

Author Ben Aldiss has already written and published two other novels: "The Babylon Boat: a case in salvage" and "The last voyage of the Lunar Queen". Both are available from Amazon.