Felix Wild

Felix Wild is approaching his seventeenth birthday, if the horse doctor who originally estimated his age by examining his teeth is correct. He still has the remarkable ability to memorise and draw anything he has seen, but is now looking for a fresh challenge. Studying navigation appeals to him but fate - in the shape of Admiral Millinhall-Slice - intervenes, and he is whisked away from the comfortable home of Mr. and Mrs. Kettle on a dangerous mission into the heart of the American Civil War aboard a blockade-runner. In this witty and engaging novel, Peter Broadbent creates characters worthy of Charles Dickens, including Pearly Yardstick, a carriage driver who – to the astonishment of the Kettle household – is not only a woman but one with 'the backside of an Epsom Derby winner'; Captain Achilles De'Kedge, whose walking stick was fashioned from the timbers of HMS Pickle, the ship that brought home the news of Nelson's triumph at the Battle of Trafalgar; and Doshie Dibbler, a mere thirty-three inches tall, but a perfect example of miniature womanhood.

Captain Achilles De'Kedge, veteran of the Royal Navy and mentor of young Felix Wild, has died. His wooden foot - an object strangely coveted by his friend Mrs. Sparrow - takes pride of place next to his coffin at the funeral. But the Captain has left something else behind, in addition to a plethora of illegitimate offspring spread throughout the world: a bequest that will set up Felix for life. Before he can barely take in what this will mean for his future, Felix receives an offer from the Admiralty: to travel to China on a clipper in the Great Tea Race of 1866 and to make drawings of what he sees. The voyage takes him first from Portsmouth to Capetown on board a steamship full of female convicts (a source of fascination to the red-blooded nineteen-year-old) before he transfers to the clipper Attitude for the onward voyage. Along the way he learns what 'owt' means in Yorkshire dialect, why the vessel's captain keeps two cockroaches in his beard, why 'voracious' is a good description of the captain's wife Juggy, and how to fool people into thinking he speaks an obscure foreign language. This third and final volume of the seafaring adventures of Felix Wild is a gripping read, with all the pace, wit and colour that readers have come to expect from Peter Broadbent.