I looked out of my studio window the other day and noticed a seagull perched on the neighbour’s roof. He looked as if he only had one leg, though I suppose that’s unlikely. In any case, he inspired this song – based on the story of Androcles and the Lion – the moral being you never know when a good deed might be repaid.

LUCKY JIM THE SEAGULL

There’s an old one-legged seagull, perched upon our roof.
Like a military general he stands there so aloof,
Though his feathers are all tattered and his eyesight’s growing dim,
Still the captain of the lifeboat says hats off to him.

Chorus: Lucky Jim. Oh, Lucky Jim,
If it wasn’t for that seagull, we’d all sink or swim.

It was late one stormy evening the alarm bell did chime.
And those that manned the lifeboat from their warm beds did climb.
There’s a freighter on the rocks lads – and nothing they can do.
Four and twenty passengers are a-counting we’ll pull through.

But we’d no sooner left the harbour when all hell it did break loose,
Our diesel engine spluttered and soon it were no use.
If lives were to be saving all hands must surely row.
To reach that ship a-sinking and avoid the rocks below.

Now that bird began a wheeling above us in the sky,
But why should any seagull give a damn if we may die?
Yet still he took the tow line to that ship in distress,
As we prayed up to the heavens for a miracle no less.

And so we began a-heaving the oars with all our might,
And the seagull led us homewards like a beacon in the night.
And though God knows how we made it all safe back to shore.
But we heard the seagull cry out above the ocean’s roar.

Spoken:

You may be a wondering why a seagull should care about us poor sailor boys. Well let me tell you the reason why.

Now the seagull is a wanderer going far out to sea,
But long ago the captain found him wailing helplessly.
His wing it had been broken so he took him home to mend,
And so then forever after he became the sailor’s friend.

Maurice Baker – July 2020

Set in the present day, the story is narrated by Emily, a fifteen-year-old girl from a run-down Yorkshire town who moves to South Devon following her parents’ split. She at first struggles to settle and develop friendships but, meeting a witch in Whitby, is introduced to climate change action group, the Green Witch Brigade (GWB). Emily then makes an enemy of oil company boss Jefferson G Krabb who is planning to build an oil refinery near Plymouth. She is involved in a series of adventures as an activist, but which appear to end in failure. However, following the discovery of a secret smugglers’ tunnel, Emily and her friends find a long-lost pirate treasure horde and she returns to the GWB, finally preventing Krabb’s project.

The novel has three main strands: Emily’s attempts to deal with her parent’s break-up, establishing new friends after moving from north to south, and her adventures with the GWB. Though the book was partly inspired by the many young people involved in the environmental movement and mentions the issues involved, these do not detract from the plot which remains fast paced. Most of the main characters are female but I believe the story would also appeal to boys.