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Twelve-year-old
Lily Swann lives with her mother and brother on the island of Santa Lucia,
somewhere in the western Mediterranean Sea.
Here you can
read about:
Go on to read about the crew
of Gisella and the Mermaid.
Lily
Lily Swann has grown up in a tiny stone cottage on the island of Santa
Lucia, running wild during the days while her Mama works.
With her little brother Lucas, Lily has sailed all over the surrounding
ocean, but she dreams of more – of escaping across the ocean to
the wonderful cities and countries over the horizon.
Lily has never been to school, but thanks to her Mama’s teaching
she can read and write, and loves learning about history and the natural
world. She is an expert sailor and navigator, and she and Lucas have
explored all around the island and as far as the mysterious Isola di
Bravo.
With her friend, Flynn, she practices fencing every afternoon in the
shade of the town walls.
Little does she know how soon she will have to call upon all these skills
to survive in a new world – a world of pirates, on an ocean without
end.
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Lucas
Lucas is pretty smart for a little kid, but he’s too cheeky for
his own good – or at least that’s what his older sister
Lily reckons.
Lucas’s pride and joy is the boat, The Swallow, in which
he and Lily sail as often as they can: out into open sea, around the
island’s rocky coast, or even just around the harbour, weaving
in between all the big merchant ships and fishing boats.
He’s too young to remember their Papa – and he’s too
proud to admit it, but Lily is his hero.
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Mama
Frances Swann married young, to a man who made his living on the ocean.
That’s no surprise – Frances’s own father was a Royal
Navy captain who had taken his wife and daughter all over the known
world with him. Frances was born below decks and grew up racing around
the quarterdeck with the ship’s cat.
But her life now is not what she expected. She’s struggling to
raise two children alone after her husband’s disappearance, takes
in washing and mending to help make ends meet, but still finds time
to teach Lily and Lucas every day.
She tells them all about her own adventures, about a life on the ocean
that seems a world away from their little cottage – but does she
realise the effect her stories are having on her restless daughter?
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Papa
Lily remembers her Papa, Rafe Swann, only very vaguely. She can remember
a fisherman with strong arms and a smelly green cap. She can remember
his blue eyes, and his old fishing boat, The Cygnet.
But he’s been gone so long
– lost at sea years ago, like so many sailors – that Lily
finds it hard to recall his face.
Why did he vanish? How? Is he dead, like they say?
Or is he waiting – somewhere over the horizon – for Lily
to find him?
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