A Sea of Gold Collectors Set

This year there will be two Kydd titles are being released; the first, The Iberian Flame, was out in June. The second, A Sea of Gold, will be launched in November. As usual, I will be offering Collectors Sets. These signed, numbered and embossed First Edition Sets are strictly limited in number to 500 only. I’m happy to write a short dedication on request. The Subscription List for The Iberian Flame filled rapidly and is now closed but there are still some unreserved Sets for A Sea of Gold.

Here’s what two of my editors have said of the manuscript of A Sea of Gold:

‘First, many congratulations – this is a simply terrific addition to the Kydd oeuvre. I could hardly bear the suspense that evolved around Kydd foray into Lloyd’s. Those passages are brilliantly written (as is the rest) – I really felt for him. And I was so relieved when everything turned out fine for him in the end – one of the most satisfying endings ever, I think! There are, of course, some magnificent passages at sea, and the fire-ships episode: will Kydd get off the burning ship in time? He did, of course, but his precarious emotional state is so well portrayed that it began to seem doubtful. I enjoyed the historical politics too, in which you bring well-known figures from the past so vividly to life, and, of course, Renzi’s continuing career in the shadows of government. Another fabulous yarn.’

‘Many congratulations once more on a fine book. It was great to have Cochrane appear ‘on screen’ as it were… The Basque Roads was in my view the finest battle scene I have read of yours (real seat-of-the pants tension and incredibly complex tactical decisions); I thoroughly enjoyed the excursions into the early nineteenth century stock market and Lloyds (very illuminating) and of course the double blow and resolution to Kydd’s fortunes was masterfully done: bravo!’

And here’s a taster of the story:

1809. After his heroic actions during the retreat to Corunna, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd is the toast of London society. Here he falls in with the legendary frigate captain, Lord Thomas Cochrane.
So begins a relationship, professional and personal, that will be unlike any that Kydd has known: a relationship that will lead him, almost simultaneously, to first glory, then ruin.

The French fleet is massing in the Basque Roads in a near impregnable position. The Admiralty orders Cochrane to command an attack, to the chagrin of more senior officers who object to being overlooked by Cochrane’s reputation for daring. Cochrane insists that his new friend, Kydd, is in the forefront of the assault armada, a motley collection of rocket, bomb and fire-ships that will set the anchorage ablaze – this despite Kydd’s almost pathological fear of fire.

The fallout from what follows will see Kydd financially ruined, with only his former shipmates, his oldest friend of all, Nicholas Renzi, and the whisper of hidden Spanish treasure promising the sea of gold that he needs to save himself.