Part one: The wave -- England : Dad's dream -- North Atlantic Ocean : becoming sailors -- Brazil : run out of Rio -- South Atlantic Ocean : the compass -- Tristan da Cunha to Capetown : being a celebrity -- Indian Ocean : the wave -- Île Amsterdam : dry but damaged -- Part two: The vote -- Freemantle to Melbourne : little mouse -- Melbourne to Auckland : departures and burials -- New Zealand to Samoa : Pacific unrest -- Samoa to the Line Islands : chasing Cook -- Hawaii : third voyage complete -- Hawaii : languishing in the Sandwich Islands -- Part three: The outsider -- Tahiti to Australia : rebellion -- Australia : school at last -- To the Solomon Islands twice : future glimpses -- Solomon Islands again: releasing the past -- Solomon Islands to Australia : the first hurdle -- Australia : my dream -- Australia to Fiji : no longer hiding -- Fiji : love overlooked -- Fiji to New Zealand : trials -- Part four: Breaking free -- New Zealand Part 1 : forced growth -- New Zealand : Part 2 : ambition -- England Part 1 : tested -- England Part 2 : Home at last -- England to Australia : freedom -- Part five: Aftermath -- Fiji : looking for the Wavewalker

"Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children. Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water... At seventeen Suzanne earned an interview at Oxford University and returned to the UK. From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?, Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child's worst nightmare - and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape"--Publisher's description