When I began the Kydd series, as I plotted out the general content of each book, I knew my central character Thomas Kydd would meet Nelson at some time. No writer in this genre can tell of the stirring events in the great age of fighting sail without being aware of Nelson at the centre. But it was not Trafalgar that I selected for this first meeting; it was at the Battle of the Nile – in my mind Nelson’s finest hour.

In the course of my research for this book my admiration for Nelson – which was already considerable – has increased immeasurably. He was undoubtedly a true genius as a leader of men, but he also had a great humanity and such respect for the lower deck that he insisted on adding common seamen to his coat of arms.

In terms of background historical material for Tenacious I was spoiled for choice. It was a time of titanic global stakes. If the Nile or Acre had been lost we would have seen Napoleon dominating a world which would have been very different today. And it was a time of deeds so incredible that they may seem like fantasy but are not – Nelson personally saving the king and queen of Naples at cutlass point, Minorca taken without the loss of a single man – and above all, the astonishing but little-known fact that Napoleon was first defeated on land not by a great army but a rag-tag bunch of sailors.

As usual, I do not have the space to acknowledge all the institutions and people I have consulted in the course of writing but there are a number to whom I owe a special debt. The National Maritime Museum holds priceless material on the thrilling Nile chase, much of which is now going online. In Minorca, Roy Wheatley and his charming wife Mary took Kathy and myself under their wing when we were there on location research. The Admiralty Hydrographic Office at Taunton could not have been more helpful in sourcing charts of the time, including one of the actual maps used in the siege.

And, my deep thanks are due to my wife and literary partner, Kathy. As well as maintaining a strict and professional eye on my developing manuscript, she has contrived to become my ‘reality manager’, keeping the intrusions of everyday life at bay to enable me to fully immerse myself in the eighteenth-century world I write about. It is a source of great gratification to me to know that so many of you share my passion for these fascinating times and I look forward to sailing with you for many books to come . . .