One man learns the ancient skills of boat building to connect with fatherhood.

Jonathan Gornall celebrates the art and craft of boat building and the simple pleasures of working with your hands. How to Build a Boat is the story of a thoroughly unskilled modern man who, inspired by his love of the sea and what it has taught him about life, sets out to build a traditional wooden boat as a gift for his newborn daughter.

It is, he recognises, a ridiculously quixotic challenge. He isn’t even sure what type of boat he should build, what wood he should use, the tools he will need or, come to that, where on earth he will build it. He has much to consider, and even more to learn. But, undaunted by his ignorance, he embarks on a voyage of rediscovery, determined to navigate his way back to a time when a man could fashion his future and leave his mark on history using only time-honoured skills and the ancient tools and materials at hand.

A writer following in the best-selling footsteps of Adam Nicolson, Tim Moore and Charlie Connelly - discovering what make modern man tick through the discovery of a craft long forgotten.