I’ve been captivated by the remarkable journals of Kelsick Wood since I first saw them. They are at the heart of my latest book, The Vanishing Age of Sail: The Illustrated Journals of Kelsick Wood, Shipbuilder, which was published by Amberley Press on 15 July 2025.
The publisher’s blurb on the back describes it nicely –
Kelsick Wood was a nineteenth-century Georgian shipbuilder in Maryport, Cumberland, with a private passion for painting. He combined his two loves in his journals, where shipyard contracts and inventories share their pages with beautiful and curious watercolour pictures. The Vanishing Age of Sail revels in the rich, textured story behind these little books. It shows how each small shipyard on Britain’s coast played its part in Britain’s economic expansion in the nineteenth century. It is also a personal tale, and the faces which look out from Kelsick’s journals remind us that these wooden ships and brigs carried the dreams and livelihoods of all those who owned, commanded and crewed them.
Simon Francis Brown’s highly visual title speaks immediately to lovers of maritime history, illustration and the Georgian era, drawing in daydreamers and doodlers alike.
Available from Waterstones, Amazon and all good local bookshops…
