A Journey through Truth, Myth and Terror in Northern Ireland

Men That God Made Mad

An utterly original and compelling book about Northern Ireland, as seen through the prism of Derek Lundy's own family

A distinguised work: erudite, earnest, elucidative, even-handed in its attempt to probe the Northern Ireland Protestant Mind and memory-box

Absorbing...it projects the experience of the province through a fascinating and thought-provoking prism... the writing throughout is terse, idiomatic and arresting, and the control of the material impressively assured

Lundy proves an excellent guide to his people

[Lundy] has an undeniably vivid flair for anecdote

Derek Lundy is the bestselling author of The Way of a Ship and Godforsaken Sea. He lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

In this remarkable book, Belfast-born Derek Lundy uses the lives of three of his ancestors as a prism through which to examine what memory and the selective plundering of history has made of the truth in Northern Ireland. 
 
In Ulster the name 'Lundy' is synonymous with 'traitor'. Robert Lundy was the Protestant governor of Londonderry in 1688, just before it came under siege by the Catholic Irish army of James II. Robert Lundy ordered the city's capitulation. Crying 'No Surrender', hardline Protestants prevented it and drove him away in disgrace. William Steel Dickson's legacy is a little different. A Presbyterian minister born in the mid-eighteenth century, he preached with famous eloquence in favour of using whatever means necessary to resist the tyranny of the English. Finally there is 'Billy' Lundy, born in 1890, the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants had become by the beginning of World War I - a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the concept of a united Ireland. 
 
The lives of Robert Lundy, William Steel Dickson and Billy Lundy encapsulate many themes in the Ulster past. In telling their stories, Derek Lundy lays bare the harsh and murderous mythologies of Northern Ireland and gives us a revision of its history that seems particularly relevant in today's world.

A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail

The Way of a Ship

'Destined to become a classic of the seas' - Eric Newby

A seaman himself, Lundy interpolates his own experiences under sail, nicely contrasting modern-day standards and mindsets with 19th-century conditions and attitudes

Lundy, too, has saltwater in his blood and his knowledge of the most arcane seafaring terms and traditions, coupled with careful research on 19th-century square-rigger voyages, makes this a tremendously elucidating, frequently thrilling read-he writes with verve and authority

With this book Lundy leaps into the front ranks of maritime historians

An exceptionally rich and satisfying weave. Hoisting sail aboard his ship Beara Head in 1885, Lundy sails her on an enthralling voyage through maritime literature, history, sociology and folklore... Heir to the tradition of Dana, Melville and Conrad

Excellent... Lundy has researched the subject deeply and writes about it with feeling... Powerful, convincing and enthralling

Derek Lundy is an experienced amateur sailor. A lawyer by training and a writer by profession, he has published four books, including the international bestseller Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters. He lives in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Benjamin Lundy crossed oceans under sail in the late nineteenth century and over one hundred years later Derek Lundy, his great-great nephew, has re-created that journey. In The Way of a Ship he places Benjamin on board the Beara Head with a community of fellow seamen as they perform the exhausting and dangerous work of sailing a square-rigger across the Atlantic and round Cape Horn. 
 
Derek Lundy adorns his story of an extraordinary journey with a profound knowledge of the sea and sailing, and reminds us that the ocean voyage under sail is an overarching metaphor for life itself.

Derek Lundy

A gripping and poetic evocation of the terrible and seductive power of the sea

One of the best books ever written about sailing

Eloquent... Lundy explores how and why humans feel drawn to the extreme risks and almost inevitable disasters that single-handedly sailing the Southern Ocean entails... A stirring narrative

'One of the best books ever written about sailing' 
Time 
 
27,000 miles, three and a half to five months alone at sea, chilling casualty rates, the unrelenting strain of handling 60-foot boats day and night, the absolute certainty of weather and waves that could destroy them. 
 
On 3 November 1996 sixteen sailors set out from the Bay of Biscay to embark on the Vendee Globe - a single-handed yacht race through the world's most treacherous and isolated seas. 
 
Of the sixteen starters only six completed the course, six others withdrew or were disqualified, three were plucked from sinking boats and one disappeared without trace. 
 
This is a book about the sea: how we are dawn to it and how it repels us and about why these men and women risk everything to embark on such a perilous journey. 
 
TWENTIETH ANNIVESARY EDITION, WITH A NEW FOREWORD FROM THE AUTHOR.

The Godforsaken Sea

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Derek Lundy

Praise for The Godforsaken Sea

A gripping and poetic evocation of the terrible and seductive power of the sea

One of the best books ever written about sailing

Eloquent... Lundy explores how and why humans feel drawn to the extreme risks and almost inevitable disasters that single-handedly sailing the Southern Ocean entails... A stirring narrative

A gripping and poetic evocation of the terrible and seductive power of the sea

One of the best books ever written about sailing

Eloquent... Lundy explores how and why humans feel drawn to the extreme risks and almost inevitable disasters that single-handedly sailing the Southern Ocean entails... A stirring narrative

A gripping and poetic evocation of the terrible and seductive power of the sea

One of the best books ever written about sailing

Eloquent... Lundy explores how and why humans feel drawn to the extreme risks and almost inevitable disasters that single-handedly sailing the Southern Ocean entails... A stirring narrative

Books by Derek Lundy

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