"Ghosting Home", by Julia Jones

The thrilling conclusion to the original "Strong Winds" trilogy...

Special Offer: buy any 3 Strong Winds books for £25 (saving 17%)

"When Donny saw which boat it was slipping stealthily up-river in this dead hour between night and day, he crouched lower and motioned to the others to do the same. No precaution could be too extreme. The Hispaniola had left her mooring."

Once the mysterious red-and-white schooner is on the move, Donny Walker and his family are in danger. Even a hasty crossing of the North Sea may not be enough to save them. Meanwhile in Fujian Province, China, a fourteen-year-old boy must leave the Village of Living Widows and travel to England, the Country of the Ghosts. Will he survive the storm winds of summer? Can Gold Dragon help him?

June Jones, Julia's mother was born in 1924, the same year as Gold Dragon. They're not at all alike - except that June, too, turned to sailing in the years after World War II when her childhood family was scattered and she needed to make a new life for herself. Fortunately (for Julia and her brothers) she bought her first boat from George Jones, a Suffolk farmer's son making a new life for himself after the war as a yacht broker. They married in 1950 and bought a yacht together. The love of sailing stuck, and today Julia Jones owns Peter Duck, which once belonged to Arthur Ransome.

Parts One and Two, "The Salt-Stained Book" and "A Ravelled Flag", are also available, as is the complete series of 7 books.