An eccentric English love story transforming into one of the most dramatic adventures ever recorded. Maurice a cautious and awkward and Marilyn charismatic and hopeful, an unlikely workable romance. Bored in 1970s suburban life, Marilyn has an idea, sell the house, build a boat, leave England and its oil crisis, industrial strikes and inflation – forever and turning dreams into reality, but finally they set sail for New Zealand. But halfway there their beloved yacht is struck by a sperm whale rising from the depths of the Pacific hundreds of miles from the Galapagos and cracks open the hull of their yacht, Auralyn. Within an hour the boat has sunk leavinf the pair on a raft with some hastily grabbbed provisions to survived for 118 days adrift. On their tiny raft their love is tested to the maximum, When Maurice begins to withdraw into himself it falls upon Marilyn to keep them both alive. “The sharks were circling, so we grabbed one by tail, hoisted into the life raft and ate it” Maurice Bailey said. She left her watch on the deck and went down to the cabin.  Her husband Maurice was still asleep. The morning would follow the usual rhythms, coffee and breakfast, then all the checks and hobs a boat requires. On this March 1973 morning, with no radio, dwindling rations, only sharks for company, filled with danger, spirit, and tenderness, this is the story about human connection and the human condition, about how we survive – not just at sea, but in life. As dawn rose, Marilyn looked out at the emptiness of the clear sky, the Pacific Ocean and themselves, a small boat, sailing west. The Bailey’s ocean-going escapade one of grisly endurance temperd by tenderness. The experience of the Baileys – who have both since died – struclk Elmhirst ” not only in its extremity but for the particular ways they survived. They wanted to escape alone and unburdened”.

Maurice and Marilyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck,  a Love Story by  Sophia Elmhirst, Chatto & Windus, £18.99, 272b pages