This is the story of Will Cribb: an idyllic childhood, his father's early death, a mother's indifference, a ten-year banishment by his stepfather to boarding school thousands of miles away, and the shy boy's efforts to cope with the school's barefoot regime and tough bullies.

However, this is no misery memoir. It is also about how the growing boy realises his dream of travelling to England -- a country he has never visited -- from where his great-grandfather sailed 100 years before.

At the heart of the book is a young man's self-discovery that, despite his mother's coldness,...