A Whiff of Burnt Boats | Geoffrey Trease’s autobiography

Discover the life of Geoffrey Trease, celebrated author of over sixty books with millions of readers all over the world. In this highly entertaining autobiography, Trease reveals his struggle to establish himself as a writer.

From throwing away an Oxford scholarship, to amusing experiences in the East End slums, A Whiff of Burnt Boats recounts how Trease plunged into marriage and a freelance writing career.

Churning out hack journalism in a Kingsway office, travelling for months through Russia in the early Stalinist era, and serving cream teas in a Somerset cottage while battling doggedly to produce a revolution in children’s literature, Trease’s personal narrative is set against the backdrop of the tumultuous years of the first half of the twentieth century.

A Whiff of Burnt Boats is an absorbing account tracing the complex influences that shape the development of a writer.

Praise for Geoffrey Trease

‘Immensely prolific and entertaining writer describes the apprenticeship to his trade’ – Sunday Times

‘Deserves success: and a sequel. Mr Trease writes with such easy modesty of his years of struggle that he could overcome the difficulty of coping with the years of success’ – Times Literary Supplement

‘Taste and confidence are restored by Geoffrey Trease in an admirably balanced account of his youth’ – New Statesman