Itinerant Soul

<p><strong>From the slums of Liverpool to the edges of the known world one boy's hunger for freedom sparks a journey that will span continents... and generations.</strong></p><p></p><p>In the squalid docklands of 1830s Liverpool fifteen-year-old Richard Belsar knows two things for sure: life is hard and dreams are for other people. Born into a world of poverty violence and survival Richard longs for more than lumping cargo and dodging gangs. He craves the open sea the thrill of foreign lands and a chance to build a life of his own making.</p><p></p><p>What unfolds is an extraordinary story of a young man who crosses oceans and empires as a merchant sailor and ship's carpenter. From the wind-whipped decks of Atlantic traders to the palm-oil outposts of West Africa from the convict ports of Van Diemen's Land to the goldfields of Victoria <em>Itinerant Soul</em> follows the path of a working-class boy who dares to carve his mark into history.</p><p></p><p>Blending fact and fiction <em>Itinerant Soul</em> is a biographic imagination of a true story. Don Alcock pieces together fragments of archives crew lists and family lore to breathe life into the past and paints a raw and compelling portrait of working-class survival in the 19th century.</p><p></p><p>If you've ever wondered who your ancestors really were-beyond the birthdates and gravestones-this novel offers a moving glimpse. Raw vivid and unflinchingly human <em>Itinerant Soul</em> reminds us that history lives not just in textbooks but in us.</p><p></p><p><strong>At its heart this is a story about the enduring bonds of family-and the way ordinary lives shape extraordinary legacies. </strong></p>