Two men in a boat

Robert Gore-Langton on a stage adaptation of the Erskine Childers classic Riddle of the Sands

The Riddle of the Sands was published in 1903. It was an instant bestseller and has never been out of print since. It’s the story of two young Englishmen who, while sailing off the German coast, unearth a fiendish plot to invade Britain. The book is often cited as the first ‘factional’ spy story, one that launched a genre. With its mass of authentic, verifiable detail it set the trend for Fleming, le Carré and the rest. The book includes maps, charts and tide timetables. It’s part patriotic thriller, part advanced sailing course; the explanations of the theory and practice of inshore sailing are perhaps its chief glory, fascinating even to those of us who don’t know a mizzen from a marlinspike.

In the book we meet Carruthers of the Foreign Office, bored of his life in London’s clubland, who takes up an offer to join his old acquaintance Davies on his yacht in Germany.