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The Riddle

Illuminating the story behind The Riddle of the Sands

By: Maldwin Drummond

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eBook | 1 January 2017 | Edition Number 1

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A new edition of the definitive study of the background to the writing of The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, now beautifully illustrated by Martyn Mackrill. It includes details of Childers' own sailing experiences and also a detailed account of the reception afforded the book in official circles and Childers involvement in this. Maldwin Drummond OBE, JP, DL has long made a study of Childers and his book, having become fascinated with its two themes which make an unlikely pair: the problems and ways of the Victorian small boat sailor and the politics and defence issues prior to the First World War. In The Riddle, Maldwin Drummond begins by looking at the wanderings of the yacht Dulcibella as her crew search for an answer to the strange happenings among the sands behind the German Frisian islands. The author highlights the urgent message from Childers that Germany was preparing to invade England and that the British were not aware of any such plan. This detective work by Drummond within the text of The Riddle of the Sands, from British and German archives and numerous other sources, yields some surprising results as Erskine Childers' predictions became a real possibility with the onset of the war.