Sign-In
Cart
The Half Bird
Paperback
Biographies GeneralBoatingGreece
Publisher Price: $19.99
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0241553172
ISBN13: 9780241553176
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Published: Aug 26 2025
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.20
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.10 Depth: 7.80
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780241553176
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Published: Aug 26 2025
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.20
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.10 Depth: 7.80
Language: English
A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST SUMMER TRAVEL BOOK OF 2024
**Good Housekeeping recommended '20 uplifting memoirs by remarkable women', June 2024** **Wanderlust magazine best travel books of 2024** 'Absorbing, moving, impressive' Guardian
______ Discover the incredible story of one woman's solo journey, from Land's End to the shores of Greece, exploring the unexpected joy of solitude, self-discovery and resilience 'It's hard to read The Half Bird without wondering whether you could do it too. It may be better to start by pondering Smillie's wider message - that to work out what will truly make you happy, you first need to stop and smell the air around you' Guardian
**Good Housekeeping recommended '20 uplifting memoirs by remarkable women', June 2024** **Wanderlust magazine best travel books of 2024** 'Absorbing, moving, impressive' Guardian
______ Discover the incredible story of one woman's solo journey, from Land's End to the shores of Greece, exploring the unexpected joy of solitude, self-discovery and resilience 'It's hard to read The Half Bird without wondering whether you could do it too. It may be better to start by pondering Smillie's wider message - that to work out what will truly make you happy, you first need to stop and smell the air around you' Guardian
__________ 'We have no idea how much resilience there is inside us until we have to draw on it. We learn that we grow through adversity only as we go through it. That we crave happiness like plants leaning toward the light' When Susan quit her job in London and set sail off the south coast of England on her beloved sailboat, Isean, she was unaware this spontaneous departure would lead to a three-year journey spanning several countries across the continent. With only the very basics on board, resourcefulness becomes an unexpected source of joy and contentment. The highs and lows of living in such an extreme way awakens a newfound appreciation for the beauty of her surroundings, for being safe - for just being alive. For all the physical and navigational challenges of her journey, the other side of her story reveals a more important change - an inner journey - that took place along the way. This wasn't merely a challenge, a mid-life adventure or gap-year career break; it was much gentler than that, but much greater too. She was seeking nothing less than an entirely different life, having left the land far behind to call the wild, unbiddable sea home. __________ Praise for The Half Bird 'I didn't know a love song between a woman and her boat could transport, and transfix me. The Half Bird made my heart whole' Rhik Samadder, author of I Never Said I Loved You 'A beautiful, wise and open-hearted odyssey through life, loves and the sea' Patrick Barkham, author of The Butterfly Isles 'Told with all the invigorating energy of a crisp wind under a cloudless sky' Charlotte Higgins, Chief culture writer, Guardian
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
$11.99
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
$236.28
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
$30.40
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
From $12.99
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
$12.99
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
From $12.99
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
From $12.99
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
$17.05
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
$20.89
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
From $10.99
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
$88.50
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
Warnicke, Retha M.
Paperback
$29.45
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
$10.99
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
$9.99
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
$17.10
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
$17.05
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Erdoes, Richard
Paperback
From $8.99
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
$9.99
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
$31.50
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
$26.10
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
$26.99
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
$29.69
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
$19.80
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
$28.80
Through Mom's Eyes: Simple Wisdom from Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans
Jones, Sheinelle
Hardcover
$27.55