Cirrus@Austlit

John Boult was a raw sixteen-year-old apprentice on the wool-clipper Emilia Denholm from Melbourne to London via Cape Horn.

Fresh from a cosy Melbourne home, he was intoxicated with the glamour of the sea and ships– until he encountered the huge and malign Captain Trygg.

The year was 1913. John Boult was among the last to be apprenticed on the giant sailing clippers– but some traditions of the old seafarers died hard…

The Man Who Stayed Below is a dazzling sea adventure by one of Australia’s finest poets, vividly calling up the vanished days of sailing ships– and the lives of the men who worked on them.

"Here is the strange and compelling story of Frogman, stage assistant extraordinaire: of Earl, the Master of Illusion; of Sister Rose and the beautiful but faded and mysterious Straub. From the backstage of the Silver Bird nightclub they come at last to the ugly country town of Highston, victims of each other's obsessions."