Live the Adventure!

Coming in June 2018…

The Iberian Flame

263 Comments on “Live the Adventure!”

  1. Just finished the Baltic Prize. Fantastic is all I can say. I can’t wait for the next Kydd book.

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  2. Greetings Julian, Finished The Baltic prize shortly after publication.
    As always a terrific read and not long until June. You are making us all wish our lives away, but do carry on !

    Are you working on anything that will fill the third spot in your “occasional”
    and splendid stand alones……just re read SilkTree

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  3. Hi Julian, In Chapter 52 of The Baltic Prize, you refer to Capt. Kydd sitting on a swivel chair. The first one was invented by Thomas Jefferson, probably around 1776. I have made a replica of this chair at a class at the now closed Windsor Institute (Mike Dunbar taught the making of all kinds of Windsor chairs). So I immediately was interested in where you got the idea for Kydd to have one. Here is a picture of it: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjcvfaMwdrYAhUL0oMKHUPXBzkQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisharter.com%2Fproduct%2Fthomas-jefferson-swivel-chair%2F&psig=AOvVaw37Dz3lnK2G4SmW6Wk8cJLy&ust=1516124195616350

    …and here is the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swivel_chair

    Thanks for the great books on Kydd! I love them all!

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  4. Just finished Baltic Prize Julian, brilliant. Even my first ship was mentioned HMS Centaur. I draw parallels between 1808 and now with Brexit, very similar I think. I also enjoy the language of then as I can think of my ancestors, who I know a great deal about, on how they must have lived and worked. I was amazed that Napoleon purchased English goods for his troops, King Ludd eat your heart out.

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  5. I love your series, please please keep writing! I do have one question though; whatever happened to the ship’s cat from the earlier books? Any chance of a return?

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  6. Hello Julian,
    I greatly enjoyed Persephone, especially the trip to Iceland. I grew up in Thurso; it is not often this part of the world gets mentioned in novels! I have one very minor suggestion – the meeting of Kydd and P might have been more credible with a bit more foreshadowing (eg P could have expressed a desire to see Iceland at some point). I know, everyone’s a critic but I think I would mention this as their finding each other in Iceland did stretch the credibility a wee bit. Still really enjoyed the novel! Thank you the pleasurable reads!
    Stephen

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  7. Just finished Persephone and loved it. My question though, is what happened to the two French sloops disabled in the action against the Iceland bound convoy?

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  8. Thank you again for another great story. I have enjoyed it a lot. what are the next to titles to look out for if you have them, looking forward to the next installment

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  9. hello there Julian (if I may) just a note to say how much I am enjoying your ‘Kydd’ series of novels (on the fourth at the moment), being a ‘fan’ of the excellent Alexander Kent ( the late Douglas Reeman) and his ‘Bolitho’ novels which I read many years ago I had been looking for an author, which imho, could compare with him and quite by accident came upon yourself and I am pleased I did as I now have many hours of enjoyment ahead. Regards. Ronald Churchill.

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  10. I loved Persephone and can’t wait for the second book in November. I’m thrilled you released 2 this year. I am a long time fan who came to the series a little late. I binge read the first 12 books until I caught up. It is agonizing to wait a year between books. Yours are some of the best tall ship fiction books I’ve read, and at this point I’ve read well over 100! Keep them coming please.

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      • Just finished “The Baltic Prize”….one of the best of this series! A fascinating tale illuminating a little-know chapter of the British struggle against Napoleon. I didn’t realise that the Baltic victory was the cause of the breakdown of Franco-Russian relations and the resultant invasion by Boney. Thank you very much, Mr.Stockwin! I very much look forward to reading The Iberian Flame.
        Stephen

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    • I too enjoy your tall ships books, the Kydd series to be specific. I look forward to reading the new ones If I ever finished wading through the biography BLIGH, about William Bligh’s South Seas adventures. What I prefer about your books that some of the others miss is you don’t bog us down in boring love affairs.

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  11. Hi Julian, I love your novels and I’m looking forward to reading Persephone. In the review it says of Kydd that he met her before. Can you tell me in which novel this occurred as I would like to look back at that.
    Thanks, Dale

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      • Just GOT my Baltic!!! Can’t wait to read it, but now O wonder if I should save it until summer so I could maybe read it and the NEW one back to back!!! Geepers, so many decisions!! I don’t think I can wait. They have ALL been so good in the series. God bless you for continuing to write after 19… May God give you years and years of creativity, ideas, and travels!!

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  12. I am now on the ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER and see that when a boat approaches a ship without an officer, the response is “No! No!” when they are challenged, “Boat ahoy!” I read in another series that if the boat contains a post captain, the coxswain hold up 4 fingers. Is that true? So, my question is what is the response for Commander Kydd? What is the response for a first lieutenant? What are the responses for any other officers?

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    • The four fingers refers to the four stripes on a post captain’s sleeve, but to my knowledge this wasn’t done – in Kydd’s day both a post captain and a commander (three stripes) were entitled to return hail of the ship’s name. All officers were and are entitled to the White Ensign to be flown in the boat and the return hail then is ‘aye, aye’.

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  13. I was quite surprised to find INFERNO finally on Chapters book shelves in Halifax in July. Delighted with my “find” I hunkered down for a weekend of reading. I have been a follower of this Kydd series since the very first book. I am a great fan of the author and his method of bringing history and fiction together. As a retired sea captain, I of course, am most interested in the relationship between Kydd, his crew and his ship while at the same time appreciate the infusion of historic facts and accounts. I will be waiting on the next adventure.

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  14. I’m glad Thomas Kydd hasn’t become an admiral and hope he never does. I had to stop reading the Bolitho series because it got too boring after Bolitho got his flag. So, the only solution was to kill him off and start all over again with his nephew who’s a captain just like the uncle was (same personality and all).

    I wish I knew something about sailing so that I could write my own series, starring an American character who’s not dashing, a bit chubby loves his food and drink, and ends up being a strict disciplinarian, sometimes even brutal like Captain Edward Edwards, who made Captain Bligh seem like a Boy Scout. I’d have him married to a local girl from let’s say Nantucket, whom we wouldn’t waste much time with. This character would start as a midshipman who gets mast-headed often for his dumb pranks, but manages to claw his way up from there despite his flaws.

    In the meantime, I’m now ready for the next in your series, “The Admiral’s Daughter.”

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  16. Hi Julian,
    I’m a great fan of Sir Thomas’s and of Nicholas and Cecilia too. I’ve just finished re-reading the whole lot again, even though I only finished Persephone for the first time two or three weeks ago!

    Sir Thomas is a wonderful and dashing frigate captain and has been so for several books now, but I’d like to see him in a second or third rate ship of the line for a couple of books, and then of course I’d like to see him get his flag. Harder to continue his career with the same élan of course under those circumstances. I understand that.

    As I’m a fan of Jane Austen too, (and a sucker for chick-lit as well as sea stories,) I was delighted to see Thomas and Persephone find each other. I’d like to see what they do when he finally retires from the sea, but I suspect most of your readers would be less interested in that aspect of his life. In the meantime wherever you decide his life takes him, I’ll be following. Thank you so much for some terrific entertainment.

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  17. As I read No.1 KYDD again for the umpteenth time, I got to the place where Kydd tearfully crawled into the cable tier for his first night’s rest. And, just as Kydd discovered the cat beside him in the darkness, I felt my pants leg suddenly grasped as a strange orange tabby kitty crawled into my own lap. Scared me to death! My visiting son and family had brought with them their own pet cat left to wander about the house… and mine was the first available lap.

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      • While not so patientlywaiting for PERSEPHONE tobe available inU.S. I read A HARD AND CRUE SHORE by Dewey Lambdin that covered the adventure/mis adventure in Portugal from a different perspective. Found some of the same historical figures and ships in both stories. Now I feel like I understand this epoch much better. Greatly enjoyed both accounts of these events. D. Ward

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  18. Mr. Stockwin, I’m curious as to what precautions they took to make sure the galley fires didn’t accidentally burn the ship down. I assume there were 2 galleys — one for the foremast jacks and one for the officers. I gather the captain had his own cook, separate from the other officers, so maybe he had his own dedicated galley too. I’d like to know that, too. Maybe on a ship of the line, but probably only 2 galleys on a frigate, and maybe only 1 on a brig.

    BTW, I’m in the middle of TENACIOUS, about to fight the Battle of the Nile. The clergyman, Mr. Peake is having angst over the captain’s request that he lead a service to inspire the men to destroy the French fleet. I thought clergy on ships was bad luck back then.

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    • There was one galley fire for both officers and men, set in a thick bed of bricks deep in the centre of the ship. Some captains did have their own cook, but there was no rule for this. Clergymen were not considered bad luck, in fact many captains liked them as they taught midshipmen manners etc. Hope you’re enjoying my Kydd tales!

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      • Thank you for answering my question about the galley fire. Yes, I am enjoying your Kydd series of books, and plan to fight the Battle of the Nile this morning while sipping coffee at Starbuck’s.

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  19. Hi julian, just completed Persephone, throughly enjoyed it and looking forward to the next one. can you still post early selected content from the book on your website like the other releases in the past just before the release date, (like next week 🙂 ) for Baltic prize.

    Cheers
    Alex

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  20. Just finished PERSEPHONE in a spare day and a half. Well done….but it always leaves us with a taster for more. So off I go for THE BALTIC PRIZE…As you are in 1807 mode I am hoping for you to go past 1815 as that may see me into my retirement (by the sea with luck) when I start with Book 1 again – and me a Dry Bob too. Thank you for them all – Gerry B

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  21. Julian, just read the Powder of Death which was very good and on recent trip back to a England for a meeting in Copenhagen, last week picked up Inferno in Waterstones Piccadilly, which having visited Copenhagen 3 weeks ago and my 4th. Visit to the Citadel ( 6th. To that city) brought it all to life. Beautifully crafted tale, I could barely put the book down, and a tragic and virtually unknown part of British and Danish history, saw the Dockyard and checked on forts locations. Thank you very much for another good read on the plane returning home and now back in Bermuda.

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    • Edwin – thank you for your kind words. Kathy and I do hope to be able to make a location research trip to Bermuda at some time in the future.

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  22. I’ve just finished reading Tyger this fine sat morning, brought a tear to my eyes and an askance look from the missis, very few books do that and even less I can read more than once

    All the Best
    Martin

    Reply

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