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Agamemnon: the Darch Model
Posted on October 10, 2017 12 Comments
Devon-based Malcolm Darch has just completed a magnificent 1:64 scale model of HMS Agamemnon. His 57th commission, she was built for a private collector in the UK and just before she was shipped to her new home Kathy and I were honoured to be invited to a private viewing. I have had the privilege […]
Hats off to Sim!
Posted on March 18, 2017 Leave a Comment
Sim Comfort’s eclectic treasure trove of coins, medals, paintings, swords and other naval items has been built up over many decades. An American by birth, Sim joined the US Navy at age 18. The US Naval Security Group sent him to Guam and later to London, where the National Maritime Museum sparked a life-long love […]
The Nelson Quiz
Posted on October 21, 2016 9 Comments
This day two hundred and eleven years ago Lord Horatio Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar. By request, I’m posting a Nelson quiz I devised a few years ago. Test your knowledge of Nelson lore with these twenty questions. (Answers at the end of the blog.) And there’s a copy of Victory, up for […]
The Nelson Quiz – How Did You Go?
Posted on October 23, 2015 1 Comment
Here’s the answers to the Nelson quiz in my last blog: 1. Where is purportedly the largest collection of Nelson memorabilia in the western hemisphere? The Horatio Nelson Museum, Nevis. Nelson had a number of associations with the Caribbean, especially in his early naval career, and married a young Nevis widow, Frances Nisbet, there in […]
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 […]
On this day: The Battle of the Nile
Posted on August 1, 2015 1 Comment
On this day in 1798 began the Battle of the Nile, a major naval engagement between the Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had ranged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to […]
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 […]
‘I see Kydd’s eyes open and honest, blue as a Sorrento sea… ’
Posted on November 5, 2014 1 Comment
Im delighted to feature Lin-Marie Milner-Brown as the November Reader of the Month. Lin-Marie is a book illustrator who lives in Nottinghamshire. Lin-Marie’s a great fan of sea tales and films like Master and Commander and The Onedin Line – and says the 18/19th century maritime environment now seems so familiar to her that it […]
CONQUEST: the Race to Empire Begins!
Posted on August 26, 2014 5 Comments
A regular feature looking back on each of the Kydd titles – with story background, research highlights, writing challenges and more. And thank you for all your kind comments on the post about my eleventh book, Victory. The twelfth book in the series is Conquest. Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar removed the spectre of […]
The Naval Medals of England and most particularly during the Reign of George III
Posted on May 4, 2014 2 Comments
[To leave a comment or reply go to box at the end of the page] Sim Comfort has built up a wonderfully eclectic treasure trove of coins, medals, paintings, swords and other naval items over many decades. He’s written and published a number of very fine books on the weapons and memorabilia of the Age […]
Julian Stockwin 