Seagoing: Essay-memoirs

The title of John McCormick's autobiographical book, may be taken both literally and symbolically.

In a literal sense, going to sea was an early and powerful ambition, while seagoing is also a metaphor for the twists and turns in a rootless life, a long voyaging.

This is not a conventional autobiography. It is personal only as necessary for continuity, and never confessional.

The essays centre upon telling episodes in the author's life and strive for objectivity and accuracy about the recent past, both personal and historical.

He does so, as he writes, without 'any pretension of producing a true history'.

The events of his life are necessarily unique to him, thus he finds uniqueness in the events that impinged upon him.