Thursday

Acquisitions (139): C. S. Forester


C. S. Forester: The Pursued (1935 / 2011)

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C. S. Forester (1899-1966)


C. S. Forester: The Pursued (1935 / 2011)
[Hospice Shop, Birkenhead - 8/10/25]:

C. S. Forester. The Pursued. 1935. Penguin Classics. 2011. London: Penguin, 2013.


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C. S. Forester: The Pursued (2011)

Pursued


C. S. Forester is one of the very few authors who can claim to have originated his very own sub-genre: the Napoleonic Sea Story. Perhaps his only real rival in this respect is J. R. R. Tolkien and his creation of Epic Fantasy - though Tolkien himself would have argued that he was simply following in the footsteps of authors such as E. R. Eddison and William Morris.

And yes, there were certainly a number of sea stories set in the so-called "Age of Fighting Sail" before Forester's creation of Captain Horatio Hornblower, R. N., but the idea of a series of such stories, starring the same central character, is certainly attributable to him.


George Cruickshank: Roderick's encounter with Captain Weazel (1748)


Scottish writer Tobias Smollett's first novel The Adventures of Roderick Random admittedly predates the Napoleonic era, but it certainly gives an unvarnished account of life aboard an eighteenth-century warship. It was based, at least partly, on:
his own experiences as a naval-surgeon's mate in the Royal Navy, especially during the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741.

James Fenimore Cooper: The Pilot / The Red Rover (1991)


Fenimore Cooper's The Pilot (1824) and The Red Rover (1828) - apparently written as a direct response to the multiple nautical inaccuracies in Sir Walter Scott's The Pirate (1821) - might be said to have launched an American sub-branch of the newly created genre of historical fiction. Cooper, too:
served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, where he learned the technology of managing sailing vessels, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings.

Frederick Marryat: Mr Midshipman Easy (1836)


Captain Marryat's novel Mr Midshipman Easy is probably the first genuinely popular account of life in the Britisth Navy during the Napoleonic wars. It's just one of the many adventure stories he wrote, but it's the one which comes closest to the "Hornblower" formula.
As a youth, Marryat tried to run away to sea several times before he was permitted to enter the Royal Navy in 1806 as a midshipman aboard HMS Imperieuse, a frigate commanded by Lord Cochrane, who later served as inspiration for Marryat and other authors.
After a long and adventurous career at sea, he resigned his commission in 1830, shortly after the publication of his first novel, The Naval Officer. It was followed by more than twenty others, which won him a permanent place among children's writers. His novels for adults had a more mixed reception, but are accepted by
maritime historians ... today to be a reliable source on the operation and characteristics of the sailing vessels of his time.

Herman Melville: Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick (1983)


Herman Melville's Redburn: His First Voyage (1849) gives a vivid, semi-autobiographical account of life on a merchant ship - somewhat in the vein of Richard Henry Dana's 1840 memoir Two Years Before the Mast. It's Melville's next novel, White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War (1850), "based on the author's fourteen months' service in the United States Navy, aboard the frigate USS ... United States", which comes closest to the contemporary model of nautical fiction, though.
Although early biographers of Melville assumed the account was reliably autobiographical, scholars have shown that much in the book was taken and transformed from popular sea books.

Joseph Conrad: Suspense: A Napoleonic Tale (1925)


Joseph Conrad's last, unfinished novel Suspense remains, alas, a magnificent fragment, but its portrait of occupied Genoa in February 1815, just before Napoleon's escape from exile on the island of Elba, already promises great things. It reads much better than previous late efforts such as The Rover (1923) or The Arrow of Gold (1919).


Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall: The Bounty Trilogy (1932-34)


Which leads us, I guess to the plethora of books exploring such themes in twentieth century fiction: Nordhoff and Hall's Bounty Trilogy (which I've already written about extensively here); novels such as The Bird of Dawning (1933) and Victorious Troy, in sea-poet John Masefield's voluminous catalogue of titles; and - last but not least - Richard Hughes' classic A High Wind in Jamaica (1929), followed by the less well-known but almost equally thrilling In Hazard (1938), which I've also written about here.


Richard Hughes: In Hazard (1938)



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C. S. Forester: Payment Deferred (1926)


It's important to remember that C. S. Forester's first success as a novelist came with stories of seedy suburban criminals such as Payment Deferred, Plain Murder (1930), and The Peacemaker (1934). It's for this reason that the recent rediscovery of his 1935 novel The Pursued is so interesting. It shows the rather sub-Graham Greene-ish mode he might have continued to pursue if it hadn't been for the overwhelming success of the first Hornblower novel, The Happy Return, in 1937.

He'd already started to plumb the vein of what one might call nautical historical fiction in 1929, with Brown on Resolution. He continued the theme - though admittedly with a riverboat rather than a battleship - in The African Queen (1935). He'd also written a couple of excellent land-based novels about the Peninsula War by then: Death to the French (1932) and The Gun (1933).

He was simultaneously evolving a formula - or an actual historicist theory - based on the idea that a single small event can exert a decisive influence on world history: Seaman Albert Brown's determined efforts to delay the German cruiser which sank his own ship long enough to ensure its destruction by its pursuers has the effect of crippling German attempts to destroy British commerce in the Pacific. The captured gun (in the novel of that name) is used with sufficient effect by Spanish irregulars to divert French troops from combining against the Duke of Wellington's increasingly successful army, thus altering the course of the war.

It's true that, despite their most valiant efforts, Rose and Allnutt are not actually successful in destroying the German gunboat Königin Luise, which guards the (fictional) Lake Wittelsbach in The African Queen, but the John Huston film made up for that rather gloomy denouement by having the gunboat sunk by an accidental collision with the wreckage of their launch.


John Huston, dir.: The African Queen (1951)


Forester's growing success with his neurotic, self-questioning protagonist Hornblower diverted him from this somewhat formulaic view of history into more frutiful realms of personal psychology.

But he did continue to write interesting historical novels outside the Hornblower series, among them such classics as The Captain from Connecticut (1941), The Ship (1943) and The Good Shepherd (1955), recently adapted into a film by Hollywood titan Tom Hanks.


Tom Hanks, dir.: Greyhound (2020)



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C. S. Forester: The Happy Return (1938)


So what was it about The Happy Return (called Beat to Quarters in the US) which led to all this? I suppose it's the fact that it tied in so neatly with other popular series in the detective and thriller markets. Sherlock Holmes was just the most famous of these fictional heroes: before him there was Vidocq, and Edgar Allan Poe's Chevalier Dupin, and Gaboriau's Lecoq, and after him came Thorndyke, and Poirot, and Ellery Queen, and Lord Peter Wimsey, and more others than one can count.



But perhaps it's more the man-of-action, espionage-oriented series starring the likes of Bulldog Drummond, Richard Hannay, and that incorrigible fighter ace Biggles which really inspired Hornblower. His exploits may be more historically based - many, indeed, are based on the actual deeds of Naval officers of the time - but they still read as pretty spectacular.

Whatever it was, it took some time for other writers to realise that they, too, could follow in C. S. Forester's footsteps. Showell Styles came first, during the Master's lifetime, with Midshipman Quinn (5 titles: 1956-65).

After Forester's death in 1966, though, the floodgates started to open. Patrick O'Brian's first Aubrey-Maturin title, Master and Commander, appeared in 1969, and after that it was open slather. Bolitho, Fox, Kydd, Ramage - not to mention all those other Napoleonic era sea novels, such as William Golding's To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, or the Fighting Sail series by Alaric Bond, which are not centred on a single character ...

Despite the pervasive atmosphere of rum, sodomy and the lash, It's become an imaginative destination as bounded and comforting to its devotees as Tolkien's Middle-earth or C. S. Lewis's Narnia ...


Andrew Grieve, dir.: Hornblower (8 Episodes: 1998-99)



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Napoleonic Sea Stories

  1. C. S. Forester (1899-1966) [Hornblower]
  2. Showell Styles (1908-2005) [Quinn / Fitton]
  3. Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) [Aubrey-Maturin]
  4. Adam Hardy (1921-2005) [Fox]
  5. Alexander Kent (1924–2017) [Bolitho]
  6. Dudley Pope (1925–1997) [Ramage]
  7. David Donachie (1944-2023) [Pearce]
  8. Julian Stockwin (1944- ) [Kydd]
  9. Anthologies & Secondary Literature

Books I own are marked in bold:



Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films and radio and television programmes, and C. Northcote Parkinson elaborated a "biography" of him, The True Story of Horatio Hornblower.
Forester's series about Hornblower tales began with the novel The Happy Return ... in 1937. Herein, Hornblower is a captain on a secret mission to Central America in 1808. Later stories fill out his career, starting with his unpromising beginning as a seasick midshipman. As the Napoleonic Wars progress, he steadily gains promotion as a result of his skill and daring, despite his initial poverty and lack of influential friends. After surviving many adventures in a wide variety of locales, he rises to become Admiral of the Fleet.
- Wikipedia: Horatio Hornblower
Put like that, it doesn't sound all that exciting, does it? But, according to historian Richard M. Langworth, no less a fan than Winston Churchill himself appears to have found both inspiration and comfort in these novels during the darkest days of World War II:
En route to meet Roosevelt in August 1941, Churchill devoured a Hornblower novel, saying: “I find Hornblower admirable.”
Desmond Morton, a onetime associate, said WSC devoured each as it came out. They were “almost as a draught of pure wine to a thirsty man.” Asked why this was so, Morton replied:
There are lots of possible explanations … Of course, he saw himself in all the heroic roles; does not a boy do this? But there is much more to it than only this.
Edmund Murray, Churchill’s bodyguard from 1950 to WSC’s death, attributed Churchill’s affection for Hornblower to its
accurate historical allusions … He was such a devotee of the celebrated Captain, in fact, that Forester would send him, from his home in America, an autographed copy of each new work. When the author came to visit England he was invited to Chartwell for lunch.
They're not empty or negligeable books by any means. I've been reading them myself since I was a boy, and - while I enjoyed the action sequences - it's the insights Forester provides into a intensely self-doubting, depressive personality that I value most. I've often recalled, in moments of stress, his reflection at the beginning of A Ship of the Line that:
if Hornblower had never been able to laugh at himself he would have been, long ago, another of the mad captains in the Navy List.
Of course, there are certain difficulties with the series as a whole. In particular, there are a number of continuity errors due, presumably, to the fact that the books were written out of order, and not in strict chronological sequence.
Lieutenant Bush is presented as a comparative stranger to his new captain in The Happy Return (1937), but the two are portrayed as shipmates in Lieutenant Hornblower (1952) - as well as having various other early encounters before Bush's unfortunate demise in Lord Hornblower (1946).
Also, Hornblower's first wife Maria is described as the "friend of his childhood" in A Ship of the Line (1938), but she's a far more recent acquaintance in Lieutenant Hornblower. Her evident distress at his departure from the boarding house (owned by her mother) she works in leads to the two getting married in the opening scenes of Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962). But in A Ship of the Line Forester had explained that:
Before their marriage Maria ... taught in a school with graduated fees - readers paid fourpence, writers sixpence, and counters eightpence.
 These are, to be sure, niggling little details, but they're the kind of thing that irritates the purist. Given the length of time over which he wrote the series, though, it's actually surprising there aren't more such inconsistencies.


    Novels:

    1. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower [January 1794–March 1798] (1950)
      • Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. 1950. Mermaid Books. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1953.
    2. Lieutenant Hornblower [May 1800–March 1803] (1952)
      • Lieutenant Hornblower. 1952. London: The Reprint Society / Michael Joseph Ltd., 1953.
    3. Hornblower and the Hotspur [April 1803–July 1805] (1962)
      • Hornblower and the Hotspur. 1962. Modern Reading. London: Longmans Green and Co. Ltd. / Michael Joseph Ltd., 1963.
    4. Hornblower and the Crisis: An Unfinished Novel [including "Hornblower and the Widow McCool" (1950) & "The Last Encounter (1967)] [August 1805–December 1805] (1967)
      • Hornblower and the Crisis: An Unfinished Novel. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1967.
    5. Hornblower and the Atropos [December 1805–January 1808] (1953)
      • Hornblower and the Atropos. 1953. London: The Companion Book Club / Readers Book Club, n.d.
    6. The Happy Return [June 1808–October 1808] (1937)
      • Included in: Captain Hornblower, R. N., A Trilogy: Comprising The Happy Return / A Ship of the Line / Flying Colours. 1937, 1938 & 1938. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1954.
    7. A Ship of the Line [May 1810–October 1810] (1938)
      • Included in: Captain Hornblower, R. N., A Trilogy: Comprising The Happy Return / A Ship of the Line / Flying Colours. 1937, 1938 & 1938. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1954.
    8. Flying Colours [November 1810–June 1811] (1938)
      • Included in: Captain Hornblower, R. N., A Trilogy: Comprising The Happy Return / A Ship of the Line / Flying Colours. 1937, 1938 & 1938. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1954.
    9. The Commodore [April 1812–December 1812] (1945)
      • The Commodore. 1945. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1949.
    10. Lord Hornblower [October 1813–June 1815] (1946)
      • Lord Hornblower. 1946. Penguin Book 1536. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.
    11. Hornblower in the West Indies [May 1821–October 1823] (1958)
      • Hornblower in the West Indies. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1958.

      12. Short Stories:

    12. Hornblower Addendum – Five Short Stories (2011)
      1. The Hand of Destiny (1941)
      2. Hornblower's Charitable Offering (1941)
      3. Hornblower and His Majesty (1941)
      4. Hornblower and the Widow McCool (1950)
      5. The Last Encounter (1967)

      13. Non-fiction:

    13. Napoleon and his Court (1924)
    14. Josephine, Napoleon’s Empress (1925)
    15. Lord Nelson (1929)
    16. The Naval War of 1812 (1957)
      • The Naval War of 1812. 1957. A Four Square Book. London: Landsborough Publications Limited, 1958.
    17. The Hornblower Companion (1964)
      • The Hornblower Companion. With Maps and Drawings by Samuel H. Bryant. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1964.

      18. Edited:

    18. The Adventures of John Wetherell (1953)
      • The Adventures of John Wetherell: The Authentic Diary of a 19th Century British Seaman, Impressed into His Majesty's Service to Fight Bonaparte. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1954.

      19. Secondary:

    19. Parkinson, C. Northcote. The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower. 1970. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.


    C. Northcote Parkinson: The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower (1970)



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    Showell Styles: Midshipman Quinn (1976)


    Frank Showell Styles was a [British] writer and mountaineer.
    Showell Styles was born in ... Birmingham ... Known to his friends as 'Pip', Showell Styles' childhood was spent in the hills of North Wales where he became an avid mountaineer and explorer. During the Second World War, Styles joined the Royal Navy and was posted in the Mediterranean ...
    An aspiring writer, Styles ... published in Punch, before setting out to make his living as an author ... He became a prolific writer with over 160 books published for children as well as adults.
    - Wikipedia: Showell Styles
    My own favourites among his books are probably the four books featuring Simon & Mag Hughes, beginning with The Shop in the Mountain (1961). The Lost Pothole (1961) is also very good.
    The "Midshipman Quinn" novels are firmly in the Hornblower mould - albeit written in a register more suitable for children - but his "Michael Fitton" series is more unusual, based, as it is, on "actual events in the life of this naval officer."


    Showell Styles (1908-2005)

    Septimus Quinn / Michael Fitton
    [1956-2000]

      Midshipman Septimus Quinn:

      1. Midshipman Quinn [1803] (1956)
      2. Quinn of the Fury [1803] (1958)
      3. Midshipman Quinn and Denise the Spy [aka "Midshipman Quinn Wins Through"] 1804] (1961)
      4. Quinn at Trafalgar [1805] (1965)
      5. The Midshipman Quinn Collection (2000)

      Lieutenant Michael Fitton:

      1. A Sword for Mr. Fitton [1799] (1975)
      2. Mr. Fitton's Commission [1803] (1977)
      3. The Baltic Convoy [1812] (1979)
      4. Gun Brig Captain [1813] (1987)
      5. A Ship for Mr. Fitton [1815] (1991)
      6. Mr. Fitton's Prize [1793] (1993)
      7. Mr. Fitton and the Black Legion [1797] (1994)
      8. Mr. Fitton in Command [1798] (1995)
      9. The 12-Gun Cutter [1798] (1996)
      10. Lieutenant Fitton [1803] (1997)
      11. Mr. Fitton at the Helm [1804] (1998)
      12. The Martinique Mission [1805] (1999)
      13. Mr. Fitton's Hurricane [1805] (2000)

      The Shop in the Mountain Series:

      1. The Shop in the Mountain (1961)
        • The Shop in the Mountain. 1961. A Dragon Book, D82. London: Atlantic Book Publishing Co. Ltd., 1968.
      2. The Ladder of Snow (1962)
        • The Ladder of Snow. 1962. A Dragon Book, D823. London: Atlantic Book Publishing Co. Ltd., 1968.
      3. A Necklace of Glaciers (1963)
        • A Necklace of Glaciers. 1963. A Dragon Book, D89. London: Atlantic Book Publishing Co. Ltd., 1968.
      4. The Pass of Morning (1966)
        • The Pass of Morning. 1966. A Dragon Book, D90. London: Atlantic Book Publishing Co. Ltd., 1968.


    Showell Styles: A Sword for Mr Fitton (1975)



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    Patrick O'Brian: Master and Commander (1969)


    Patrick O'Brian ... born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series. These sea novels are set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centre on the friendship of the English naval captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen Maturin. The 20-novel series, the first of which is Master and Commander, is known for its well-researched and highly detailed portrayal of early 19th-century life, as well as its authentic and evocative language. A partially finished 21st novel in the series was published posthumously containing facing pages of handwriting and typescript.
    O'Brian wrote a number of other novels and short stories, most of which were published before he achieved success with the Aubrey–Maturin series. He also translated works from French to English, and wrote biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso.
    - Wikipedia: Patrick O'Brian
    The first book I actually read by Patrick O'Brian was his early children's book The Golden Ocean, which I enjoyed at the time - mainly because of the interaction between the young midshipman Peter Palafox and his Irish friend Sean O'Mara.
    Although written many years before the Aubrey–Maturin series, [his two early] naval novels reveal literary antecedents of Aubrey and Maturin. In The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore, based on events of George Anson's voyage around the world from 1740 to 1744, they can be clearly seen in the characters of Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow in the latter novel.
    What I hadn't realised that he wrote "the first of the Aubrey–Maturin series in 1969 at the suggestion of American publisher J B Lippincott, following the 1966 death of C. S. Forester." After the books became a cult in the 1990s, his admirers were quick to deny any particular influence of Hornblower on the allegedly "superior" Aubrey / Maturin roman fleuve. It's a little like questioning the influence of Homer on Virgil, or Virgil on Dante, however: so obvious that it hardly needs to be spelt out.
    There's no doubt that O'Brian was able to introduce a level of complexity into his account of this long (and unlikely) friendship between the bluff Englishman Jack Aubrey and the subtle Irish-Catalan physician Stephen Maturin quite alien to Forester's formula of exciting action combined with almost equally intense scrutiny of a single protagonist. Which is better is a matter of taste. For myself, I'm happy to have both.
    The resemblances between the two series do seem to me far more marked than the divergences, however.


    Patrick O'Brian (2000)

    Jack Aubrey / Stephen Maturin
    [1969-2004]

      Aubrey / Maturin Series:

      1. Master and Commander [1800-01] (1969)
        • Master and Commander. 1970. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 1. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.
      2. Post Captain [1802] (1972)
        • Post Captain. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 2. London: Collins, 1972.
      3. HMS Surprise [1804] (1973)
        • HMS Surprise. 1973. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 3. London: Collins, n.d.
      4. The Mauritius Command [1810] (1977)
        • The Mauritius Command. 1977. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 4. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.
      5. Desolation Island [1811] (1978)
        • Desolation Island. 1978. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 5. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
      6. The Fortune of War [1812] (1979)
        • The Fortune of War. 1979. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 6. Fontana. London: HarperCollins, 1980.
      7. The Surgeon's Mate ["1812a"] (1980)
        • The Surgeon's Mate. 1980. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 7. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1981.
      8. The Ionian Mission ["1812a"] (1981)
        • The Ionian Mission. 1981. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 8. London: Fontana / Collins, 1982.
      9. Treason's Harbour ["1812a"] (1983)
        • Treason's Harbour. 1983. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 9. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
      10. The Far Side of the World ["1812b"] (1984)
        • The Far Side of the World. 1984. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 10. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
      11. The Reverse of the Medal ["1812b"] (1986)
        • The Reverse of the Medal. 1986. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 11. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
      12. The Letter of Marque ["1812b"] (1988)
        • The Letter of Marque. 1988. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 12. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
      13. The Thirteen-Gun Salute ["1812b"] (1989)
        • The Thirteen Gun Salute. 1989. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 13. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
      14. The Nutmeg of Consolation ["1812b"] (1991)
        • The Nutmeg of Consolation. 1991. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 14. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.
      15. Clarissa Oakes [aka "The Truelove"] ["1812b"] (1992)
        • Clarissa Oakes. 1992. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 15. Fontana. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
      16. The Wine-Dark Sea ["1812b"] (1993)
        • The Wine-Dark Sea. 1993. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 16. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.
      17. The Commodore ["1812b"] (1995)
        • The Commodore. 1995. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 17. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.
      18. The Yellow Admiral [1813-15] (1996)
        • The Yellow Admiral. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 18. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1996.
      19. The Hundred Days [1815] (1998)
        • The Hundred Days. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 19. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.
      20. Blue at the Mizzen [1816] (1999)
        • Blue at the Mizzen. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 20. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.
      21. The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004)
        • The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey: Including Facsimile of the Manuscript. Foreword by William Waldegrave. 2004. The Aubrey-Maturin Novels, 21. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.

      Other Fiction:

    1. [as Patrick Russ] Caesar (1930)
    2. [as Patrick Russ] Hussein: An Entertainment (1938)
    3. Three Bear Witness [aka "Testimonies"] (1952)
    4. The Frozen Flame [aka "The Catalans"] (1953)
    5. The Road to Samarcand (1954)
    6. The Golden Ocean (1956)
      • The Golden Ocean. 1956. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970.
    7. The Unknown Shore (1959)
      • The Unknown Shore. 1959. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.
    8. Richard Temple (1962)

      9. Short story collections:

    9. [as Patrick Russ] Beasts Royal (1934)
    10. The Last Pool and Other Stories (1950)
    11. The Walker and Other Stories (1955)
    12. Lying in the Sun and Other Stories (1956)
    13. The Chian Wine and Other Stories (1974)
    14. Collected Short Stories [aka "The Rendezvous and Other Stories"] (1994)
    15. The Complete Short Stories (2023)

      16. Non-fiction:

    16. Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy (1974)
    17. Pablo Ruiz Picasso: A Biography (1976)
    18. Joseph Banks: A Life (1987)
    19. [with Morgan Pierpont & Ruth S Kraemer] Histoire Naturelle Des Indes: The Drake Manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Library (1996)

      20. Poetry:

    20. The Uncertain Land and Other Poems (2019)

      21. Translated:

    21. Jacques Soustelle: Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest (1961)
      • Soustelle, Jacques. The Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. 1955. Trans. Patrick O’Brian. 1961. A Pelican Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.
    22. Henri Daniel-Rops: Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (1962)
    23. Henri Nogueres: Munich: Peace for Our Time (1965)
    24. Simone de Beauvoir: A Very Easy Death (1966)
      • Beauvoir, Simone de. A Very Easy Death. 1964. Trans. Patrick O’Brian. 1966. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
    25. Joseph Kessel: The Horsemen (1968)
    26. Simone de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed (1969)
      • Beauvoir, Simone de. The Woman Destroyed. 1967. Trans. Patrick O’Brian. 1969. Fontana Modern Novels. London: Fontana / Collins, 1971.
    27. Henri Charrière: Papillon (1970)
    28. Henri Charrière: Banco: The further adventures of Papillon (1973)
      • Charrière, Henri. Banco: The Further Adventures of Papillon. 1972. Trans. Patrick O’Brian. 1973. Panther Books Ltd. Frogmore, St Albans, Herts: Granada Publishing Limited, 1974.
    29. Miroslav Ivanov: Target: Heydrich (1973)
    30. Simone de Beauvoir: All Said and Done (1974)
      • Beauvoir, Simone de. AAll Said and Done. 1972. Trans. Patrick O’Brian. 1974. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
    31. Jean Lacouture: De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944 (1990)

      32. Edited:

    32. A Book of Voyages (1947)

      33. Seconday:

    33. King, Dean. Patrick O'Brien: A Life Revealed. 2000. A Sceptre Paperback. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2000.


    Patrick O'Brian: Master and Commander (2000)



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    Adam Hardy: The Press Gang (1973)


    Henry Kenneth Bulmer ... was a British writer, primarily of science fiction.
    A prolific writer, Bulmer penned over 160 novels and numerous short stories, both under his real name and various pseudonyms. For instance, his long-running Dray Prescot series of planetary romances was initially published as by Alan Burt Akers, and later as by the first-person protagonist of the series, Prescot himself ...
    Bulmer's works are popular in translation, particularly in Germany, to the extent that in some cases they have been published only in German editions, with the original English-language versions remaining unpublished ...
    In some cases, Bulmer used not only a different name but also included in the books a detailed imaginary biography giving specific personal details substantially different from the true ones.
    - Wikipedia: Kenneth Bulmer
    For the adventures of George Abercrombie Fox, the "toughest bastard on the high seas", he adopted the pen-name Adam Hardy. Or, as the Goodreads site puts it:
    Come aboard, if you dare, for a hellish ride on a violent ship of war — with Fox
    FOX IS NOT THE NOBLE HERO OF TRADITIONAL FICTION. FOX IS A FIGHTING MAN WHO TRANSCENDS HEROISM — HE DOESN’T CARE HOW HE WINS AS LONG AS HE WINS. HE’S MEAN, CUNNING AND MOST VICIOUS WHEN TRAPPED. THERE’S NO WAY TO OUTFOX FOX!
    Clearly he's meant as a foil to Hornblower and the other, more gentlemanly heroes who followed in his footsteps.


    Adam Hardy (1908-2005)

    George Abercrombie Fox
    [1972-1977]

    1. The Press Gang [1797] (1972)
    2. Prize Money [1798] (1973)
    3. Siege [aka "Savage Siege"] [1799] (1973)
    4. Treasure [aka "Treasure Map"] [1799] (1973)
    5. Powder Monkey [aka "Sailor's Blood"] [1775-1778] (1974)
    6. Blood for Breakfast [aka "Sea of Gold"] [1799] (1974)
    7. Court Martial [1799] (1974)
    8. Battle Smoke [1799-1800] (1974)
    9. Cut and Thrust [1800] (1974)
    10. Boarders Away [1800] (1975)
    11. The Fireship [1800] (1975)
    12. Blood Beach [1800-1801] (1975)
    13. Sea Flame [1801] (1976)
    14. Close Quarters [1801] (1977)


    Adam Hardy: Fox Series (1976)



    Douglas Edward Reeman ... who also used the pseudonym Alexander Kent, was a British author who wrote many historical novels about the Royal Navy, mainly set during either World War II or the Napoleonic Wars. He wrote a total of 68 novels, selling 34 million copies in twenty languages.
    At the beginning of the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy's boys' training establishment HMS Ganges. In 1940 Reeman was appointed Midshipman, at the age of 16. His initial service was in destroyers on convoy duty in the North Atlantic. During this time his ship was sunk and Reeman was injured by exploding depth charges. Later he transferred to Motor Torpedo Boats and was present subsequently at D-Day in a landing craft. It was then that he was injured badly when his landing craft was hit by shellfire. He finished the war ... with the rank of Lieutenant.
    After the war, Reeman joined the Metropolitan Police, serving as a beat officer and later in the Criminal investigation department. At the beginning of the Korean War he rejoined the Navy. At the end of the war he joined London County Council as a child welfare officer, but remained a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve.
    - Wikipedia: Douglas Reeman
    It's perhaps not surprising that so many of the later - post Forester and O'Brian - writers of nautical historical fiction served in the Navy at some point in their lives. There's a certain reactionary, establishment tinge to the whole subject of Nelson's navy and the men who led it, not to mention:
    Those far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, [which] stood between it and the dominion of the world.
    As naval historian Alfred Thayer Mahan put it in his 1890 book The Influence of Sea Power upon History.
    "Alexander Kent"'s Bolitho saga takes it further than most, beginning in 1772, shortly after the Seven Years War, and taking the story right through to 1819.


    Alexander Kent (1924-2017)

    Richard Bolitho / Adam Bolitho
    [1975-2011]

      Richard Bolitho:

      1. Richard Bolitho, Midshipman [1772] (1975)
      2. Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger [1773] (1978)
      3. Band of Brothers [1774] (2006)
      4. Stand into Danger [1774] (1980)
      5. In Gallant Company [1777] (1977)
      6. Sloop of War [1778] (1972)
      7. To Glory We Steer [1782] (1968)
      8. Command a King's Ship [1784] (1973)
      9. Passage To Mutiny [1789] (1976)
      10. With All Despatch [1792] (1988)
      11. Form Line of Battle [1793] (1969)
      12. Enemy in Sight! [1794] (1970)
      13. Flag Captain [1797] (1971)
      14. Signal – Close Action! [1798] (1974)
      15. The Inshore Squadron [1800] (1978)
      16. A Tradition of Victory [1801] (1981)
      17. Success to the Brave [1802] (1983)
      18. Colours Aloft! [1803] (1986)
      19. Honour This Day [1804] (1987)
      20. The Only Victor [1806] (1990)
      21. Beyond The Reef [1808] (1992)
      22. The Darkening Sea [1809] (1993)
      23. For My Country's Freedom [1811] (1995)
      24. Cross of St. George [1813] (1996)
      25. Sword of Honour [1814-15] (1998)

      Adam Bolitho:

      1. Second to None [1815] (1999)
      2. Relentless Pursuit [1815] (2001)
      3. Man of War [1817] (2003)
      4. Heart of Oak [1818] (2007)
      5. In the King's Name [1819] (2011)




    •

    Dudley Pope: Ramage (1965)


    Dudley Pope ... was a British writer of both nautical fiction and history, most notable for his "Lord Ramage" series of historical novels. Greatly inspired by C.S. Forester, Pope was one of the most successful authors to explore the genre of nautical fiction, often compared to Patrick O'Brian.
    ... Born in Ashford, Kent ... he joined the Home Guard aged 14 ["by concealing his age"] and at age 16 joined the merchant navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors. After he was invalided out the only obvious sign of the injuries he had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then [worked for] The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.
    His first book, Flag 4, was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester ... encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, Ramage appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
    - Wikipedia: Dudley Pope
    The protagonist of these books, Nicholas, Lord Ramage "is a contemporary of Horatio Hornblower, but unlike the latter, who never fought in a large fleet battle, Ramage participated in both the Battle of Cape St. Vincent and the Battle of Trafalgar."
    He's still alive and kicking at the end of the series, sometime in 1806. Given he was born in "1775 at Blazey Hall in Cornwall, the eldest son of the [unfairly courtmartialled] Earl of Blazey", that ought to leave him plenty of time for further adventures.


    Dudley Pope (1925-1997)

    Nicholas, Lord Ramage
    [1937-1967]

      Ramage:

      1. Ramage [1796] (1965)
      2. Ramage and the Drumbeat [1797] (1967)
      3. Ramage and the Freebooters [aja "The Triton Brig"] [1797] (1969)
      4. Governor Ramage R.N. [1797] (1973)
      5. Ramage's Prize [1798] (1974)
      6. Ramage and the Guillotine [1798] (1975)
      7. Ramage's Diamond [1799] (1976)
      8. Ramage's Mutiny [1799] (1977)
      9. Ramage and the Rebels [1800] (1978)
      10. The Ramage Touch [1800] (1979)
      11. Ramage's Signal [1800] (1980)
      12. Ramage and the Renegades [1802] (1981)
      13. Ramage's Devil [1803] (1982)
      14. Ramage's Trial [1803] (1984)
      15. Ramage's Challenge [1803] (1985)
      16. Ramage at Trafalgar [1805] (1986)
      17. Ramage and the Saracens [1806] (1988)
      18. Ramage and the Dido [1806] (1989)

      Yorke series:

    1. Buccaneer (1981)
    2. Admiral (1982)
    3. Galleon (1986)
    4. Corsair (1987)

      5. Other novels:

    5. Convoy (1979)
    6. Decoy (1983)

      7. Nonfiction:

    7. Flag 4: The Battle of Coastal Forces in the Mediterranean (1954)
    8. The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
    9. 73 North: The Battle of the Barents Sea 1942 (1958)
    10. Decision at Trafalgar (1959)
    11. England Expects (1959)
    12. The Black Ship (1963)
    13. Harry Morgan's Way: Biography of Sir Henry Morgan 1635–1688 (1977)
    14. The Great Gamble: Nelson at Copenhagen (1978)
    15. Life in Nelson's Navy (1981)
    16. The Devil Himself: The Mutiny of 1800 (1988)
    17. At 12 Mr Byng Was Shot (1962)
    18. Guns (1965)


    Dudley Pope: Ramage Series (1976)



    •

    David Donachie: By the Mast Divided (2004)

    David Donachie
    (1944-2023)

    David Donachie ... was a British nautical historical novelist. Born in Edinburgh, Donachie lived in Deal, Kent, with his novelist wife Sarah Grazebrook. He died from cancer in 2023, at the age of 79.
    He also wrote under the pen-names Tom Connery and Jack Ludlow as well as, from 2019, Jack Cole.
    - Wikipedia: David Donachie
    Of the 54 novels he published, roughly half under his own name and half under pen-names, the majority were set at sea. The series he wrote included:

      [as David Donachie]:
    1. The Privateersman Mysteries (6 titles: 1991-97)
    2. Nelson and Emma (3 titles: 2000-01)
    3. The John Pearce Series (18 titles: 2004-23)
    4. The Contraband Shore Series (3 titles: 2018-19)
    5. Midshipman Wormwood Series (4 titles: 2019-20)
      6. [as Tom Connery]:
    6. The Markham of the Marines Series (3 titles: 1996-99)
      7. [as Jack Ludlow]:
    7. The Republic Series (3 titles: 2007-08)
    8. The Crusades Trilogy (3 titles: 2012-13)
    9. The Conquest Series (4 titles: 2009-10)
    10. The Last Roman Trilogy (3 titles: 2014-15)
      11. [as Jack Cole]:
    11. Miscellaneous thrillers (5 titles: 2013-18)

    He was, by all accounts, an interesting and many-sided man. His friend Stephen Bates remarks in his Guardian obituary that Donachie:
    used to say that he became a writer after trying most other careers first. He had been a house painter, salesman, truck driver, publican, ice-cream salesman, chauffeur and backstage hand in the theatre before turning his hand to authorship. It was no wonder that the dust jacket of his first novel told readers that he had had more jobs than birthdays.
    He's undoubtedly best known for the "John Pearce" series, but some of his other historical novels run it a close second.


    David Donachie (2010)

    John Pearce
    [2004-2023]

    1. By the Mast Divided [1793] (2004)
    2. A Shot Rolling Ship [1793] (2005)
    3. An Awkward Commission [1793] (2006)
    4. A Flag of Truce [1793] (2008)
    5. The Admirals' Game [1793] (2008)
    6. An Ill Wind [1793] (2009)
    7. Blown Off Course [1793] (2010)
    8. Enemies at Every Turn [1793] (2011)
    9. A Sea of Troubles [1794] (2012)
    10. A Divided Command [1794] (2013)
    11. The Devil to Pay [1794] (2014)
    12. The Perils of Command [1794] (2015)
    13. A Treacherous Coast [1795] (2016)
    14. On a Particular Service [1795] (2017)
    15. A Close Run Thing [1795] (2018)
    16. HMS Hazard [1796] (2021)
    17. A Troubled Course [1796] (2022)
    18. Droits of the Crown [1796] (2023)


    David Donachie: John Pearce books (2001-05)



    •

    Julian Stockwin: Kydd (2001)

    Julian Stockwin
    (1944- )

    Born in 1944, Julian Stockwin soon developed a love for the sea, having an uncle, Tom Clay, who ... sailed around Cape Horn in the Cutty Sark.
    After grammar school, his father sent him to sea-training school at Indefatigable at age 14. He joined the Royal Navy at 15 and transferred to the Royal Australian Navy when his family emigrated. Stockwin served eight years ...
    - Wikipedia: Julian Stockwin
    Stockwin eventually retired from the Navy as lieutenant commander, and returned to the United Kingdoom in 1990. He began writing in 1996. His first novel, Kydd, was published in 2001.
    The book is unusual in that the hero is an ordinary pressed man, not an officer as is most common in nautical fiction.
    He is, in fact, "a young wig-maker from Guildford."


    Julian Stockwin in front of HMS Victory (2010)

    Thomas Kydd
    [2001-2024]

      The Kydd Series:

      1. Kydd [1793] (2001)
      2. Artemis [1794] (2002)
      3. Seaflower [1795] (2003)
      4. Mutiny [1797] (2004)
      5. Quarterdeck [1798] (2005)
      6. Tenacious [1798] (2005)
      7. Command [1801–1802] (2006)
      8. The Admiral's Daughter [1803] (2007)
      9. Treachery [1803] [aka "The Privateer's Revenge"] (2008)
      10. Invasion [1804] (2009)
      11. Victory [1805] (2010)
      12. Conquest [1806] (2011)
      13. Betrayal [1806] (2012)
      14. Caribbee [1806] (2013)
      15. Pasha [1807] (2014)
      16. Tyger [1807] (2015)
      17. Inferno [1807] (2016)
      18. Persephone [1807] (2017)
      19. The Baltic Prize [1808] (2017)
      20. The Iberian Flame [1808] (2018)
      21. A Sea of Gold [1809] (2018)
      22. To the Eastern Seas [1810] (2019)
      23. Balkan Glory [1811] (2020)
      24. Thunderer [1812] (2021)
      25. Yankee Mission [1812] (2022)
      26. Sea of Treason [1813] (2023)
      27. Admiral [1814] (2024)

      Other historical fiction:

    1. The Silk Tree (2014)
    2. The Powder of Death (2016)

      3. Non-fiction:

    3. Stockwin's Maritime Miscellany (2009)


    Julian Stockwin: The Thomas Kydd series (2001-05)




    1. Downer, Martyn. Nelson's Purse: An Extraordinary Historical Detective Story Shedding New Light on the Life of Britain's Greatest Naval Hero. Corgi Books. London: Transworld Publishers, 2005.
    2. Kemp, P. K. ed. A Hundred Years of Sea Stories: From Melville to Hemingway. London: Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1955.
    3. Kennedy, Ludovic, ed. A Book of Sea-Journeys: An Anthology. 1981. London: Fontana/Collins, 1982.
    4. Learmonth, Eleanor, & Jenny Tabakoff. No Mercy: True Stories of Disaster, Survival and Brutality. Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2013.
    5. Leslie, Edward E. Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors. 1988. London: Macmillan, n.d. [c.1989].
    6. Lockhart, J. G. Mysteries of the Sea: A Book of Strange Tales. The Nautilus Library, 1. 1924. London: Philip Allan & Co., 1937.
    7. Masefield, John. Sea Life in Nelson’s Time. 1905. Introduction by Prof. C. C. Lloyd. London: Book Club Associates. 1984.
    8. Oman, Carola. Nelson. 1947. London: The Reprint Society, by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1950.
    9. Raynal, François. Wrecked on a Reef; or, Twenty Months in the Auckland Isles. A True Story of Shipwreck, Adventure, and Suffering. A Facsimile of the text and illustrations of the 1880 edition. Ed. Christiane Mortelier. Wellington: Steele Roberts Ltd., 2003.
    10. Simpson, A. W. Brian. Cannibalism and the Common Law: The Story of the Tragic last Voyage of the Mignonette and the Strange Legal Proceedings to Which It Gave Rise. 1984. King Penguin. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
    11. Wright, Olive. The Voyage of the Astrolabe – 1840. An English Rendering of the Journals of Dumont d’Urville and his Officers of their Visit to New Zealand, together with Some Account of Bishop Pompallier and Charles, Baron de Thierry. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1955.
      12.


    William Beechey: Portrait of Horatio Nelson (1801)



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    • category - English Prose (post-1900): Authors


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