Man Overboard

by Monica Dickens

Lieutenant-Commander, the hero of this novel, is axed from the Navy at the age of thirty-six, one of many thousands obliged to re-plan their lives as the result of cuts in the armed services. A widower with a small daughter, he has no experience or knowledge outside submarines and the Royal Navy.

His whole life had been that of a sailor since he joined up direct from school at the beginning of the war. This is not only the story of his struggles and adventures when he tries to find some way of earning his living; it is the story of his difficulty in adjusting himself to an unfamiliar civilian world.

Monica Dickens's novel is the story of all such men in any of the services who find themselves so rudely thrust into the ordinary life of their country which, though they have served unselfishly, they find they are ill-equipped to live in. Written with the lighter humorous touch of some of her earlier books, it is a sympathetic presentation of the human side of one of those mass adjustments forced on society by the changing nature of the world and its affairs.

Man Overboard was first published in 1958.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

From the publisher: MONICA DICKENS, born in 1915, was brought up in London and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Her mother's German origins and her Catholicism gave her the detached eye of an outsider; at St Paul's Girls' School she was under occupied and rebellious. After drama school she was a debutante before working as a cook. One Pair of Hands (1939), her first book, described life in the kitchens of Kensington. It was the first of a group of semi autobiographies of which Mariana (1940), technically a novel, was one. 'My aim is to entertain rather than instruct,' she wrote. 'I want readers to recognise life in my books.' In 1951 Monica Dickens married a US naval officer, Roy Stratton, moved to America and adopted two daughters. An extremely popular writer, she involved herself in, and wrote about, good causes such as the Samaritans. After her husband died she lived in a cottage in rural Berkshire, dying there in 1992.
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Reviews

[Squeak2017 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A picaresque novel with an appealing but honest hero who is the eternal optimist. His adventures are those of everyman, trying to find a job, a wife, and a place in the world. He does eventually find happiness but in most respects his future life remains unsettled at the close of the novel. The gentle comedy of shrewdly observed characters is entertaining, and Dickens captures perfectly the passive aggressive tyranny of the soulless parents proclaiming their son to be the light of their lives amid the pathos of how clearly he disappoints them. Best of all, Dickens has great fun creating the character of a writer who writes regular articles for a Sunday magazine, lives in Hampstead while renovating a manor house in Surrey and loves to be the centre of attention in his regular parties. Anyone who has read any Beverley Nichols will read him into this character immediately (Nichols’ lover was an ex-Navy man). Dickens’ character was famous for two bestselling books but instead of gardens they focus on erotica! I’m sure Nichols must have been in on the joke. And now I’m off to read Yours Sincerely, a collaboration between Dickens and Nichols.

[AngelaC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1958, a year after the then UK Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys, had significantly reduced the size of the Royal Navy, this book follows the trials and tribulations of a newly-retrenched submarine commander who discovered that his skill with periscopes etc. did not equip him for a life on civvy street.
It is a gentle, whimsical, well-written book with such wonderful characterisation that it is easy to paint a picture of the commander and those around him in the mind's eye. Each stage of his journey forms a cameo that harks back to the days of black and white films and such wonderful actors as Margaret Rutherford, Noel Coward or the young Dirk Bogarde.
If you are a fan of fast-paced adventure stories full of explosions and car chases, this will not be for you. However, if you enjoy an escape back to a gentler time peopled with quirky characters, you, like me, will probably love this book.
And, in case you're wondering, Monica Dickens is the great-granddaughter of the great Charles of 19th-century fame.

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd go with "gently charming" for this one. The characters are well described, the humour is gentle and the observations on social types realistic and touching. On the other hand, not a huge amounts happens by way of plot. Quite enjoyed it.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent character study by the inimitable Monica Dickens.
Ben is an unemployed naval officer whose wife had an affair and died under scandalous circumstances, leaving him with a mother in law with whom he is closer than his own parents and a self-possessed small daughter with a lively imagination she clearly inherited from him. Ben is not only an imaginative dreamer but also a born optimist always looking ahead to the next possibility, and although finding employment with no prior experience outside the cocoon of the Navy proves more difficult than he had hoped, he generally manages to find something good out of everywhere he ends up - until the next thing goes wrong.

He has spent a lifetime making up fantasies about the life of a family who live in a house he passes regularly on the railway line, and when she gets old enough his daughter Amy joins in too. One day, in an impulsive act, he actually gets to meet them, and although reality doesn't match his imaginings it proves just as good and the start of a new chapter in his life, even if this is not the solution to all his problems either...

As usual, Miss Dickens writes all her characters with a touch of sympathy, from the vapid but vulnerable actress with more looks than talent to the clinging provincial mother and the dodgy insurance agents. Ben Francis may live in his dreams of the future, but he works hard wherever he finds himself and is never dispirited for long.

[Jerry Summers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book at The Paper Hound Bookshop in Vancouver before cruising on Holland America Line Koningsdam. We didn’t have any titled events thankfully. I was sympathetic of Ben as a fellow submarine officer trying to find a career after the Navy. Ben was a little too passive for my taste especially as a widower raising a young daughter, Amy. I do appreciate his moral code though that is threaded through all his false starts.

[Jack Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica Dickens is underrated I feel. This is a slightly strange book - in that it's reasonably slow moving and not a lot happens, I suppose, but the characters are excellently drawn and the desriptions are great. Ben's been retired from the Navy as part of the post-war (well, it's the late fifties) reduction of the services. He's only 36, a widower with a nine-year-old daughter, and he doesn't really have much idea about what he might do next. Luckily he's an optimist, and so none of the potentially slightly grim things that happen to him make him downhearted. He's a very likeable protagonist, and Amy (the daughter) is a great supporting character, as is her grandmother, Ben's mother-in-law. I like the way he's quite romantic but also realistic.

[Nigel Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read all the worlds end childrens novels recently I thought I would give Monica Dickens adult fiction a try. I enjoyed this and breezed through it easily enough. Nicely drawn characters, fun if unchallenging scenarios and some good writing. But in reality the world's end books are better and more adult - they dealt quite bluntly with family, death, hopes and dreams and contained some amazingly good passages worthy of any modern writer. I don't regret reading this but ...

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's years since I read 'Man Overboard' and I think I only read it once then, so had forgotten a lot of it. It's a quick but fairly satisfying read. I think the main problem with it is that it isn't long enough for all the characters, they needed more time (even Ben, the lovely protagonist). The book should have either been twice as long or there should have been half as many characters.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

A widowed naval officer starts an affair, then loses his job. The book is about his struggles to hold together his relationships and his attempts to find happiness. Not very inspiring, but well-written.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful book about a widower who is decommissioned by the British Navy and has to forge a new life for himself. That sounds pretty ho-hum, but the way he goes about it makes for one of the most charming, engaging, and satisfying books I've ever read.

[Cody Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book - great characterization and gentle humour. The hero looks for love in all the wrong places, but finally finds it.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

British naval officer in the 1950s finds himself forcibly retired as the Royal Navy continues its post-war force reductions. Although 35-year-old Charles was a captain, and is looking forward to having a shot at the private sector he soon realizes he isn’t trained to really do anything. He is also a widower with, I want to say, an 11-year-old daughter. Early in the book, while still in the Navy, he starts dating a television star and one is led to believe that the whole book is going to be about him juggling his status with the vagaries of his diva girlfriend. But about halfway through the book Dickens seems to have decided that that wasn’t as interesting as Charles himself. This is where I think things became more like the kind of book I wanted to read. I enjoyed the ladies at an employment agency who kind of adopt him. I loved his mother-in-law and his daughter. I really liked how a decades-old fascination with a house and family he sees from the train window turns into reality. And I was really excited when he becomes bursar at a boys school and really starts to stir things up.

[Miles Chicken · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not new that people devote part of their career defending their county only to be made redundant by their cost-cutting government and then to have it implied to them that the world doesn't owe them a living. When I read this at 18, the idea of admiring a woman from a train and meeting her, was very appealing.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous, warm and human. A pleasant story.