Paperback: Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson (Vintage, £9.99)

This is a story about Ernest Hemingway and his boat, The Pilar.

He got the boat when he was 35 — fit, handsome and at the top of his game. He was living in Cuba. He owned the boat for 27 years. As Hendrickson memorably says, he did all sorts of things on this boat — fished, drank, wrote, propositioned women, even shot himself. In the legs, that is. By accident.

His life was spectacular, and, somehow, went spectacularly wrong.

Hendrickson tells the story of the man and the boat, and the fish, and the women, and the writing. And then the moment when, at the age of 61, Hemingway woke up early one morning and shot himself. In the head. On purpose. Some story. Very well told.