IMAGE
Julian Stockwin
Softback
Book Reviews
101106
Since Hornblower charted a course for fictional naval heroes, He has been followed by new heroes from other pens who have also become best sellers. With the exception of O'Brian's stories, each hero has been the central character. O'Brian followed a slightly different course with an interplay between two characters, Jack Aubrey, and Dr Maturin. However, O'Brian followed the formula established by Hornblower in following the career of officers. Stockwin has taken a much more original line and added greatly to the genre of Napoleonic War naval fiction. This book begins the career of Tom Kydd, wigmaker and pressed man. It also establishes the character of Renzi. Having begun reading Stockwin at book seven, this reviewer knows that the relationship of these two characters is enduring. Other readers who have started further down the time line should buy a copy of "Kydd" and begin again because they will find it a rewarding process. In the first book, Stockwin introduces Tom Kydd at the point he is taken away from his home and family by the press gang. It follows him through his time on his first ship, an aging 100 gun line of battle ship HMS Duke William, the "Royal Billy". As a pressed man with no previous experience as a sailor, Kydd is rated Landsman, the lowest of the low aboard. Equivalent fictional heroes begin as Midshipmen, officer cadets roughly equivalent in the pecking order to Petty Officers. By good fortune, Kydd joins a mess where a seasoned sailor sees his potential and helps him begin the dizzying climb, literally as he learns to man the masts and handle the sails, that will see him succeed and prosper. His mess includes Renzi and Stockwin begins the process of bringing together the fortunes of two very different characters. Where Kydd as a wigmaker is a young tradesman starting out and brought down to the lowest naval rate by the press gang, Renzi comes from a privileged and wealthy background, volunteering for personal reasons when his contemporaries would have begun as Midshipmen. Stockwin paints a vivid picture of the hardships and cruelty of the sailing Navy, together with the genuine opportunities for the determined and ambitious and the close comradeship that develops in the messes. There are no shortages of thrills and spills, joy and despair. There is also a richer base because Stockwin is able to introduce the character to the technologies and language of the sailing Navy and the lower deck. Towards the end of the tale Kydd and Renzi look set fair and firmly climbing the ladder to higher rates but then there is a double twist. Disaster seems certain and then there is a new and unexpected chance to pull through. Having read one of Stockwin's tales of Kydd and Renzi, a reader is most unlikely not to seek out the other stories in the series and to follow this very human and engaging tale against a background of Nelson's Navy with its majestic pyramids of sail, its hard conditions, the fog of gunsmoke, the excitement of close quarters fighting, the storms, the distant lands and an age that was so very different from our own. For a reader starting into the genre, this is an excellent first book that informs and entertains to create lifelong passion for the subject. To expand the experience, visit HMS Victory in Portsmouth and USS Constitution in Boston MA to see real ships and rare survivors of the period. Try to take a trip on a reconstruction such as the Grand Turk which closely follows the form of a frigate with some necessary modern equipment. To get a real feel for the combat try firing a black powder pistol or musket where the smell, the sound, the smoke, and the dirt are quite unlike modern firearms.
R1381
Fiction
0-340-79474-7
http://tinyurl.com/
Kydd
440
£6.99
Hodder and Stoughton