BookPick Category
BookPick: Two Historic Ships
Posted on November 3, 2015 5 Comments
The history of Great Britain is inextricably linked to the sea and sea power. Invaders – Romans, Danes, Vikings and others – came by sea as did trade from the Mediterranean and beyond. Dominance of the sea between the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries led to the building of a great imperial empire. While some […]
BookPick: Nelson’s Band of Brothers
Posted on October 13, 2015 4 Comments
On October 21, on the anniversary of the death of Horatio Nelson, and his victory at Trafalgar, I and many others will be toasting The Immortal Memory. There are legions of books on Nelson and his life and times – and I did wonder what more could be written about this subject. But Nelson’s Band […]
BookPick: Early Ships and Seafaring, Water Transport Beyond Europe
Posted on September 29, 2015 2 Comments
Although my primary interest is in the Age of Fighting Sail I’m always drawn to books dealing with the engrossing story of man’s exploration and exploitation of waterways and then the sea. In this book, Seán McGrail’s study of European Water Transport (published in 2014) moves out to cover Egypt, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, China, […]
BookPick: Across the Pond, a Double Helping
Posted on September 15, 2015 5 Comments
I’m crossing the Pond for this Double Helping of BookPicks! I became fascinated with espionage during research for the Kydd series, in particular for my book Treachery, so I was exercised to read John A. Nagy’s ‘Spies in the Continental Capital’ on the critical role of intelligence operations across Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century and […]
BookPick: Chasing Conrad
Posted on August 11, 2015 3 Comments
Chasing Conrad is the second book by Simon J Hall (following Under a Yellow Sky) that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. This book is set in the mid-1970s during the closing years of the golden age of British shipping, when cargo carriage at sea saw radical change and the romance of being at sea […]
BookPick: Rigging Period Fore-and-Aft Craft
Posted on June 30, 2015 2 Comments
Employing clear draughtsmanship this book explores the rigging of typical period fore-and-aft vessels, those like Seaflower, the tops’l cutter in which Kydd sailed around the Caribbean. Author Lennarth Petersson deploys three typical eighteenth-century types – an English cutter, a three-masted French lugger and an American schooner – to represent variations. Illustrations for these ships include […]
BookPick: Britain’s Heritage Coast Exmouth to Plymouth
Posted on May 26, 2015 4 Comments
Kathy and I moved to Devon a dozen years ago and we know we’re privileged to live in one of the nation’s loveliest regions, with superb coastal and maritime vistas at almost every turn. The regular tweeted photographs from @GaryHolpin rarely fail to brighten my day, especially those with a salty bent. Says Gary: ‘I’m […]
BookPick: Support for the Fleet
Posted on May 19, 2015 1 Comment
The author of this monumental work is Jonathan Coad, a former Inspector of Ancient Monuments. He is a Vice-President of the Society for Nautical Research and a former President of the Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Support for the Fleet traces the architectural and engineering works in the Royal Navy’s shore bases […]
BookPick: British Campaigns in the South Atlantic 1805-1807
Posted on May 5, 2015 1 Comment
This non-fiction book covers the subject matter of Conquest and Betrayal and would be of interest to readers of those titles whose curiosity is piqued and wish to delve deeper, as well as students of military history in general. Between 1805 and 1807 the British mounted several expeditions into the South Atlantic aimed at weakening […]
BookPick: Nelson’s Victory, 250 Years of War and Peace
Posted on April 7, 2015 5 Comments
The publication of this title, written by Brian Lavery, is very timely as next month sees the anniversary of the launch of HMS Victory from Chatham Dockyard. Sumptuously illustrated, the book tells the story of the ship since she first took to the waters in May 1765. It contains what may be surprises for many […]
Julian Stockwin 