Jake Wellington Leacy admiring the copy of Victory his father bought to introduce him to the joys of reading when he's a little older. Meanwhile, Dad told Julian he "borrowed" the book and read it in one day as he "couldn't put it down"...

Eleven-year-old Ben at a recent book signing for Victory. He may be my youngest reader yet...

Master of the brig Lady Nelson Brian Hodgson in Tasmania helming through "the slot" between Cape Pillar and Tasman Island at dawn

Canadian Shipmate and Naval Reservist Lt. Jim Parker at the Centennial celebrations, International Fleet Review "Weepers" at HMCS Malahat

Jean Joel from New York State is an avid reader of the Kydd Series. For many years she and her family sailed a 36ft Erikson sloop in Long Island Sound and along the Connecticut coast, in the very same waters where Tenacious chased the French privateer in Quarterdeck. She says a highlight of a recent visit to England was her tour over HMS Victory

The year 2010 is the year of the Canadian Navy's centennial. Here, Rear Admiral Pyle, West Coast Maritime Forces Pacific CO and HMCS Malahat's CO Cdr Steve Pokotylo proudly display a special flag

Julian was gobsmacked when he received this photo from Shipmate Sim Comfort! Browsing among the items in an art auction recently Sim had come across a portrait of one Thomas Kydd, master’s mate of His Britannic Majesty’s Royal Navy. The painting dates from about 1800

Honeymooner Bill O’Leary on a remote island in French Polynesia taking time out for a good book...Bill says he took Kydd, Artemis & Seaflower and read them all by the second week – and with another week of the honeymoon still to go what’s a Kydd fan to do...

Ever since Shipmate David Roth stood on the banks of the East River in Lower Manhattan and watched a parade of Tall Ships he has been entranced by the age of sail. His wife presented him with a model of the Dutch ship of the line De Zeven Provincien for his 40th - and she had an edible version of the ship made as his birthday cake!

Imagine Julian’s surprise when he was contacted by a salty mariner claiming to be a petty officer from HMS Teazer! No, it wasn’t the Teazer that Kydd knew and loved but a Royal Navy destroyer of yore that CPO Hart served in. Sadly, she is no more but Vince presented Julian with his own Teazer cap tally.

These Shipmates gathered together in the Bosun’s Store of HMS Victory are masters of Knotcraft, having gone from boy seamen to commissioned Boatswains in the Royal Navy and now valued members of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. They are from left, Ken Yalden, Bob Pearce and Ken Elliott.

Believe it or not this is Shipmate David Harris charging the glasses for the “Immortal Memory” toast – on top of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. This event was a re-enactment of the “topping out” dinner when the monument was built in 1845

Paulo Meireles on board NE Sagres, the sail training ship of the Portuguese Navy. She was visiting the port of Viana do Castelo (where Paulo is a ship agent), as part of Portugal’s National Day celebrations

Retired US Marine Colonel Ross Brown recently made a pilgrimage to HMS Victory in Porstmouth. He was accompanied by his salmon fishing buddy John Kalbert

Jim Parker a Canadian Naval Reservist in a six-month deployment to Southern Sudan as a UN Military Observer. A long way from the sea...!

Sergio Pepe is a member of the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia of Naples. Among the club's treasured maritime possessions is a ship’s bell from HMS Teazer! Sergio believes this may have been from the Teazer gun-brig at the Battle of Copenhagen.

Donald Westley is an active sailor who has been pleasure boating in Midwest US lakes for many years. He also enjoys modelling. Here he is with a radio-controlled Brig-sloop that he built that is not so very different from HMS Teazer...

Ken Erichsen takes in a good book when sailing on the Mexican Riviera. He served in the USAF, retiring with the rank of Master Sergeant. A posting to England for eight years enabled Ken to enjoy many visits to Portsmouth and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

Chris Lopatosky a real topman of today out on the yardarm of the tall ship Star of India. Sharp-eyed sailors will have noticed the use of robands on the bending jackstay for this sail, replacing the earlier practice for Kydd when a topman of bending sail below the yard.

Commander Richard Morris RN holding a copy of Julian's latest book at the whaling station at Grytviken, South Georgia, in the deep reaches of the Antarctic. His ship, HMS Southampton, had recently completed an eight-month deployment that had seen the warship travel 33,000 miles through two oceans, and visiting fourteen countries from Cape Verde in the North Atlantic to the frozen wastes of the South.

George Moore off the Irish coast en route to Scotland, sailing in Gunsmoke of Down. George (RN Retd) is a member of the Royal Western Yacht Club and an ex-Admiral’s Cup contender. George now lives in Spain; his great-great grandfather was a “Carpenter to the Crown” and apart from building and racing yachts worked on the Titanic in Belfast.

William and Kimi DeVaney canoeing in the Arctic. William, a marine historical artist, now living in the States, was raised as a bush Alaskan in the twilight of her days as a territory. He has a special appreciation of "the wonderful, sacred expanse of wilderness".

Michael Wonio is proud to be among the hundreds of volunteers who help maintain the 1877 iron barque Elissa, located in the historic port of Galveston, Texas. Elissa is a fully functioning vessel and she continues to sail annually. Over her 90-year commercial history she carried a wide variety of cargoes to ports right around the world.

UK Shipmates Rachel and Kevin Jolly and Rick Wehmeyer from the USA, were aboard the tall ship Tenacious on a recent voyage from Bermuda to Southampton. Here, Rachel and Rick are pictured as the ship berthed after what they described as the experience of a lifetime!

Edward Shaw had a naval career that took him around the world to 50 different countries. He was in Vietnam around the same time that Julian was serving there in the Royal Australian Navy. Now living in Lexington, Kentucky, Edward says it is idyllic enough among the greenery, the horses etc. but too far from the sea to suit him...

Tom Morga is a California-based stuntman who’s worked on Master & Commander and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. He was introduced to Julian’s books by a fellow stuntman who gave him Kydd as a birthday present

Rod Redden, an English teacher currently living in Japan, has been a military re-enactor since age eleven. Here he is pictured with his family on a recent visit home to Canada

General Manager of Chapter’s Bookstore in North London, Linda Stock, with a display of the Kydd Series. London, also known as "The Forest City", is in the heart of south-western Ontario in Canada. The photo was kindly provided by Shipmate David Colwell

Amy Swan, winner of Writer of the Year 2006, receives a signed copy of Command from Mr Riley Warren, Headmaster of Macarthur School in Sydney, Australia

Shipmate Re-enactor Roger Marsh, as Pellew (middle) on the quarterdeck of his command Impetueux in the year 1801. Also pictured are his sons Adam on the left, lieutenant, and Jason on the right, midshipman. Roger is one of the original subscribers to the Bosun's Chronicle

Sergeant Joshua Horton, United States Marine Corps. Joshua says he has always been tremendously interested in the age of Fighting Sail and is a great fan of the Kydd series. He warmly recalls celebrating Trafalgar Day at a Royal Navy dinner while stationed in Washington, DC

Shipmate Tony Harris, outside HMS Victory in Portsmouth. Tony, who is a great fan of naval fiction, recently enjoyed his first tall ship sailing voyage in Lord Nelson part of the fleet of the Jubilee Sailing Trust. Aboard, Tony found himself reliving passages from Kydd, bracing a yard for the first time, going aloft, scrubbing the decks. Tony hails from Hereford, almost as far from the sea as it's possible to be in the UK!

Presenting Patrick Grainger, age 9, with first prize in a competition to write an essay about the sea. Budding-writer Patrick subsequently won a place at a special creative writing programme for gifted children

Bill Payne, originally hails from Indiana in the States, and now lives in Osaka, Japan, with his wife Kiyomi. Bill runs a sailboat school and also teaches coastal navigation for the American Sailing Association

Staff at the Kaibundo Book Store, in Kobe, Japan, holding copies of the Kydd books; from left, Higuchi san, Yoshii san and Arakawa san. Kaibundo is the major bookstore for marine related materials in the area

Sam Beckett at TS Coventry, the same Sea Cadet unit in which Julian learned the basics of seamanship. The Coventry unit has 75 cadets, male and female, aged 10 to 18, and a staff of 25. It is one of the largest youth groups in the area.

John and Jackie Simmons, at the 50th anniversary of the opening of HMAS Nirimba, where he and Julian both trained as shipwrights in the sixties. Sadly Nirimba is now gone but there is an active association of old boys

Senior Librarian Will Cooban of the Bexley Library Services with Julian at a talk marking the launch of the UK paperback of Tenacious. Will is admiring a gun block from Julian's collection of sea artefacts

UK Shipmate Mark Tindall launches his fully working model of HMS Invincible at Kensington Round Pond club. Mark has also constructed models of Victory and Bellona

American ship modeller, Wayne Hawkins and his wife Liz. Wayne presented Julian with a 1:1200 scale model of the 64 gun HMS Tenacious. She flies the white ensign and commissioning pennant, and is shown under easy sail to topsails, but with t’gallants struck

UK re-enactor Keri Tolhurst (on right), a Napoleonic Soldier of the 50th Foot. Keri has been a re-enactor since 2001

Husband and wife Canadian fans of the Kydd series, Margaret and Norman Hopkins. Originally from Scotland, the Hopkins have a house rule – Margaret reads each new Kydd first, then passes it to Norman. The Hopkins recently visited Gibraltar and told Julian – “What a fantastic place, really loved it – we felt as if we were walking in Kydd's footsteps”

Capt. Philip Warner, USCG Licensed Master aboard Hannah Rose, Long Island, NY

Canadian Shipmates, John Gorczyca and Eric Kraima, with a display of Kydd books in the Dalhousie, Calgary, Chapters Bookstore where they work

Staff at Crayford Library Kent, England, with a selection of Julian's books

Junko Go reading the Japanese translation of Kydd. Junko is a former translator herself, and is now an internationally renowned artist

Lt Ian Urquhart on the bridge of Canada's legendary HMCS Sackville during Battle of Atlantic commemoration ceremonies

American Shipmate Jeff Souder giving a talk about naval fiction at the Salem Public Library