Children's Event

Saturday 20th October

Paul Dowswell

Powder Monkey: A Boy’s Life in Nelson’s Navy

Chester Library, Northgate Street
10.30am
Adults FREE, children £1 (includes grog and ship’s biscuits)

Prepare to have your timbers well and truly shivered. In the 1800s, boys as young as 10 or 11 were expected to fight and risk death in the navy and the epic adventures of boy sailor Sam Witchall make for thrilling reading. Find out why being a ‘powder monkey’ was such a dangerous job, what it was like to climb a tall mast in a raging storm and why doing the ship’s laundry was one of the worst things a boy could be asked to do. Hailed as a ‘Patrick O’Brian for kids’, this prolific and highly successful author once attended Chester’s Queen’s Park High School and sang in the cathedral choir.