I sing, as I was told,

inside myself.

I sing inside myself

the one wild song, song that whirls

my words around

until a world unfurls

my ship’s new sail

I catch the dew and set

a course amongst the ocean curls

The silence at the song’s end,

before the next

Is the world.

The above illustration, entitled Storm on Star Fen, forms the cover of the book and was painted by the Lincolnshire artist, Alan Parker. He writes: My idea  was  a very 'East of England' painting with high skies, the land less-so,the sky more so - the type of landscape Nick would have been cycling around over the years. Usually a beautiful, tranquil place, Star Fen can be truly hellish when you turn around and there is a crushing storm on your shoulder and there is no shelter.

On this website, you can learn about the collected journals and poetry of Nicholas Heiney who died in 2006, aged 23, after taking his own life.

    These vivid writings about his adventures on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, together with his poetry, remained undiscovered until after his death. His parents, Paul and Libby Heiney were urged to publish them by Prof. Duncan Wu of Oxford University, Nick’s former tutor, who realized the depth and maturity in both his prose and poetry. It is, as he writes in his introduction, ‘a powerful piece of

writing, exemplary in its sanity and clear-sightedness’.

You can learn more about the book

You can read more about Nick Heiney

You can read extracts from his book

Download a PODCAST of Libby Purves and Duncan Wu in discussion about the book.

ORDER A COPY HERE.

Go to the LATEST NEWS page to see how readers have responded to this book

CHECK OUT this year’s Cheltenham Literary Festival