Maiden Voyage

A moving coming-of-age novel based on the author’s adolescent experiences in China

At sixteen, Denton Welch was attending school in Derbyshire, England. One morning, instead of taking the train to school, he caught a bus traveling in the opposite direction with no real plan except to start a new adventure. Although he reluctantly returned to school at his family’s bidding, he soon received a letter postmarked from Shanghai—a letter from his father suggesting that Denton join him China.

So began a momentous journey that would shape young Denton Welch’s life. Leaving behind his companions at school as well as the life he had known, he traveled across the globe to China, where he was seized with a sense of wonder completely new to him. It was there, so far from his roots, that young Denton began to explore his ambitions, aspirations, and secret desires.

Written with an artist’s keen sensibility for observation and inspired by J. R. Ackerley’s Hindoo Holiday, Maiden Voyage is an unforgettable tale of growing up and discovering oneself.