"The Salt-Stained Book", by Julia Jones

Julia Jones owns and sails Arthur Ransome’s ketch Peter Duck.

"The Salt-Stained Book" is Part One of her original ‘Strong Winds’ trilogy, set on and around the Orwell estuary in Suffolk.

In 1945, two brothers die in the icy Barents Sea and a book is all that survives of them. More than sixty years later Donny and his mother set out for Suffolk to meet his mysterious great aunt. There is an accident and Donny is taken into care. But are the Officials all that they seem and why won’t they believe Donny’s story? Soon he discovers that his life has been built on a lie. Only the new friendships he makes and an unsuspected talent for sailing help him steer his way through dangers that he cannot understand towards a knowledge of his own identity – and the secrets of a salt-stained book.

Parts Two and Three, "A Ravelled Flag" and "Ghosting Home", are also available, as is the complete series of seven books.