The writing is gripping and it's a marvel that Childers manages to make the minutiae of sailing and navigation so engrossing. It is also credited as an inspiration to everyone from John Buchan to Ken Follett. Published in 1903, it predicted the threat of war with Germany and was so prescient in its identification of the British coast's defensive weaknesses that it influenced the siting of new naval bases. Published in 1903, it predicted the threat of war with Germany and was so prescient in its identification of the British coast's defensive weaknesses that it influenced the siting of new naval. Out of context, the story of Erskine Childers's The Riddle of the Sands sounds like a bog standard thriller, but that's because so many books are pale echoes of this exceptional novel. When Charles Carruthers accepts an invitation for a yachting and duck-shooting trip to the Frisian Islands from Arthur Davies, an old chum from his Oxford days, he has no idea their holiday will become a daredevil investigation into a German plot to invade Britain. Two young men go sailing for pleasure, unaware that they're sailing into the greatest danger they will ever know. Sat 8th Jan 1994, 19:50 on BBC Radio 4 FMĮrskine Childers's classic story, with Laurence Kennedy as Carruthers and Charles Simpson as Davies. Saturday-Night Theatre: The Riddle of the Sands
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