Regatta (by Libby Purves)

(Amazon UK link)

I am glad I decided to re-read my novels by Libby Purves this year. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the ones I first read over fifteen years ago. However, over the past couple of days I re-read ‘Regatta’, which I first read back in 2004. And while I did like it, once I got into the story, I didn’t find it as moving or thought-provoking as some of Purves’ other novels.

The main character is Anansi, an eleven-year-old girl who has been in and out of council care for most of her life. Her mother has been convicted more than once of drug dealing, and her father is absent - Anansi barely remembers him. She walks with a limp, and her mother has told her that it was caused by her father kicking her.

Now her mother has a two-year-old daughter too, and Anansi feels unwanted and unloved. Her only happy memories are of her grandmother, who helped to bring her up for the first few years, but sadly she died in a road accident.

Anansi comes to stay in a seaside town in Suffolk. This is as part of a scheme to provide summer holidays for children in care, and is staying with a couple called Sheila and Simon. Simon is a writer, not a particularly successful one, and they live on the interest of a big inheritance which Sheila had a few years earlier. Their house was also an inheritance - a large one with several bedrooms, so they are able to host children for the summer, although usually they are much younger than Anansi.

Sheila and Simon have two sons, a teenager and one just a little older than Anansi. They are away at boarding school when she arrives, but when they return for the summer they really don’t want to be saddled with a girl… their passion is for sailing, and indeed much of the book is taken up with nautical discussions and expeditions, with jargon that mostly went over my head.

It’s mostly a character-based book, however. Anansi’s first friend is Harry, Sheila’s uncle, who works quietly on his boat, and is a good listener. Harry is the catalyst for a lot of what happens in the story, including teaching Anansi to sail. There are also side stories - a rather degrading affair between two people whose families are socially connected; a vicious feud between Anansi and Sheila’s younger son; the breakdown of one marriage, and the tentative healing of another.  I found many of the minor characters difficult to distinguish - there are a lot of names - but it didn't seem to matter.

There’s also an exciting climax to the book, when five children take three dinghies out, planning a race, but without any adults aware of what they are doing. Disaster inevitably ensues, but it leads to a mostly positive ending.

It’s a good story and would probably be more interesting to people who know and like sailing. The jargon is, I’m sure, fully authentic; the author is known for her interest in sailing, and it’s mentioned in more than one of her books. Perhaps the title makes it obvious: yet the junior Regatta, which is mentioned more than once, is a very small sideline to the story, and happens off stage, almost in passing.

It wasn’t until I was about half-way through that I started finding myself more drawn into the book, liking and appreciating the strength of character in Anansi, and the warmth that surrounds her. The author makes some good points about the fine line between generosity and condescension, and about the importance of seeing children in council care as unique individuals rather than treating them as poor relations.

Yet Anansi, despite having seen violence and worse, with a vocabulary of shocking bad language, is a caring, courageous and intelligent girl. She is likeable in her own right, and while she has to fight harder than most to be accepted, it doesn’t address the question about children who, through no fault of their own, have few if any redeeming features.

Still, on the whole it’s a satisfying read, even if the ending is a bit too neat for reality. Recommended, particularly for anyone with an interest in sailing.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews