New edition of a beloved memoir, Thinking Up a Hurricane by Martinique Stilwell

It gives me great joy to share the news that Karavan Press has published a new edition of Martinique Stilwell’s beloved memoir, Thinking Up a Hurricane.

In the spring of 1977, Frank Stilwell launched Vingila, 17 tons of welded together 11-millimeter steel plates. Never one to be daunted by a challenge or resisted in any way, he took his nine-year-old twins Robert and Martinique out of school, persuaded his wife Maureen that they would all learn to sail and cope with life on the open seas as they went, and prepared to follow his dream of circumnavigating the world.

In this unique coming-of-age memoir, Martinique Stilwell’s recounting of her true-life gypsy childhood is poignant, funny and heartbreaking. With the wisdom and innocence of a child’s point of view, it is a powerful and tender story of physical and emotional adversity, of family dysfunction and the ties that bind, and of the shackles and exhilarating freedom of growing up different.

Praise for Thinking Up a Hurricane:

‘With Thinking Up a Hurricane, Stilwell joins the ranks of great ocean-crossing storytellers like Robin Lee Graham, Webb Chiles and Joshua Slocum.’ – Sunday Times

‘Thinking Up a Hurricane is a riveting tale of adventure and bravery.’ – Brian Joss, The Tatler

‘This is a travel narrative of the highest order … it offers a glimpse into the little-known gypsy-esque world of strange folk who head off to sea for years at a time.’ – Cameron Ewart-Smith, Getaway

‘A remarkable account of a storm-tossed childhood.’ – Nic Dawes

Publisher: This edition Karavan Press

Publication date: October 2023

ISBN: 978-1-7764581-6-5

(First published by Penguin Books South Africa, 2012)

MARTINIQUE STILWELL was born in South Africa in 1967 and sailed around the world with her family from the age of nine till she was sixteen. Martinique now lives in Cape Town, where she works as a doctor.