A Wee Dander

'A Wee Dander' is Kenneth Patterson's second collection of memoirs and continues where 'Says You, Says I' ended. It describes how the author left Belfast in 1959 when he joined the Merchant Navy and the different experiences encountered by him in his life at sea.

Kenneth describes how he left behind the poverty of his Belfast childhood and became an adult on board a series of different ships which sailed around the world.

From Belfast to England, around the Scottish Isles, through the ports of continental Europe and further afield to Japan, the United States and Latin America, he came into contact with a fascinating range of human characters whose views and behaviour shaped his outlook upon life.

'A Wee Dander' reflects upon the nature of friendships, sectarianism, loves old and new, lost innocence and first encounters with foreign cultures. Its narrative is punctuated and paced by outward and return journeys from the author's hometown of Belfast, and subtly portrays the ways in which childhood innocence fades into adult awareness. It observes how other people and their lives move mundanely on as our own nautical miles mount up.

Gun-wielding Americans, escort girls in Japanese karaoke bars, a psychopathic galley chef, well-meaning but misunderstood strangers and international film stars filter in and out of its pages just as the author moved from port to port, from one country to another, from one decade into another.

The recurring theme of 'A Wee Dander' is the unresolved tension between the urge to travel and see new horizons, and homesickness and the need to return to the familiar, a tension which often leads to dramatic and drastic courses of action...