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HMS Victory – 250 this month!
Posted on May 12, 2015 6 Comments
There’ve been many famous ships in Britain’s proud maritime history – Mary Rose, Golden Hinde, Cutty Sark, to name but three… but one ship stands head and shoulders above the rest – HMS Victory, now currently undergoing major restoration in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to ensure her preservation for future generations This month marks the 250th […]
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 […]
World’s First Factory Assembly Line
Posted on April 2, 2015 2 Comments
The name of the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel is widely known for his heroic engineering feats but we should also raise our glasses to his father, Marc Brunel, born this month in 1769 – for it was he who gave us the first factory assembly line ‑ and something that was of great […]
Building an Age of Fighting Sail Reference Library, Part 1
Posted on January 15, 2015 4 Comments
It’s a question I’m quite often asked – what books do I suggest would be useful to acquire in order to learn more about the period I write about. It was hard to make a selection from the vast range of wonderful titles that have been published over the years, so I’ve decided it warrants […]
BookPick: The British Navy in the Baltic
Posted on December 28, 2014 2 Comments
The Baltic is not usually popularly associated with activities by the Royal Navy – yet it was arguably the most vital sea highway to Britain in the last few centuries. This book covers the activities of the British navy in the Baltic Sea from the earliest times until the twentieth century. It traces developments from […]
BookPick: A Christmas Double Helping
Posted on December 9, 2014 1 Comment
Kathy always tells me men are hard to busy presents for – so here are two suggestions for Christmas gifts for males with an interest in the maritime world: Early Ships and Seafaring and The Royal Navy and the War at Sea 1914-1919. The former covers the earliest days of water transport up to the […]
BookPick: From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow
Posted on November 16, 2014 2 Comments
Arthur J Marder was a distinguished historian of the modern Royal Navy, publishing some fifteen major works on British naval history. He died in 1980. Despite recent major contributions from more modern historians Marder’s books are justly regarded by many as the definitive history of naval events leading up to and including the Great War […]
BookPick: A History of the Royal Navy Series
Posted on September 23, 2014 3 Comments
The History of the Royal Navy is published by I.B.Tauris, in association with the National Museum for the Royal Navy. The series consists of three chronologically themed books covering the sailing navy from the 1660s until 1815; the navy in the nineteenth century from the end of the Napoleonic Wars; and the Navy since 1900. […]
BookPick: The Great War at Sea
Posted on August 23, 2014 5 Comments
Lawrence Sondhaus brings impressive credentials to this work; he is Director of the Institute for the Study of War and Diplomacy at the University of Indianapolis. In his Introduction, Sondhaus makes the point that while the Great War was a conflict distinctive for its unprecedented bloodshed, less than 1 percent of the 8.5 million combatant […]
Julian Stockwin 