Fire Down Below

Lose yourself in an epic naval journey in the final novel in the Booker Prize-winning Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies. Read by the author in 1989, this recording was re-mastered in 2022.


I think there has been death in my hands.

On the last stretch of its epic voyage from England to Australia, a disintegrating warship inches towards land. But there are still trials ahead, as the vessel is smashed against an ice cliff and blasted by a great storm, while the claustrophobic passengers battle erotic desires, masculine rivalry and violent power struggles - all experiencing a sea change in their natures. And when an unseen fire begins to smoulder below decks, the other side of the world has never seemed further away ...


'A truly noble achievement'. Patrick O'Brien

'Laden to the waterline with a rich cargo of practicalities and poetry, pain and hilarity, drama and exaltation.' Sunday Times

'A tour de force ... A persuasive adventure, love story and allegory, as serious as it is entertaining.' Penelope Lively

'The best novel I've read this year ... The language fizzes and spits.' Daily Telegraph


'Reeks and resounds with authenticity ... The epic imaginative enterprise [is] as formidable a feat as the year-long odyssey it charts.' Sunday Times

'Awesome ... Ambivalent, unresolved, walking a tightrope between reason and spirituality, tragedy and comedy ... So compelling and disturbing.' Victoria Glendinning


To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book Three