TREACHERY: prey and prizes
Posted on July 20, 2014 3 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 eighth book, THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER.
The ninth book in the series is TREACHERY, published in the US as THE PRIVATEER’S REVENGE). Facing a grim future Kydd has been framed and unfairly dismissed his ship. He struggles to survive – and clear his name.
Praise for the book
‘Julian Stockwin is the superstar of naval fiction set during the Age of Sail . . . another great seafaring adventure.’ – Warships
‘Once again Kydd triumphs when all seems lost.’ – Maritime Book Reviews
‘Stockwin is a born storyteller and, with his series of intriguing sub-plots, a man with a vivid imagination. Importantly, his research is accurate and first class. TREACHERY is highly recommended.’ – Flagship
Location research
France is clearly visible from Mt Orgueil
During the period of the French Wars, the Channel Islands held a special significance for England because of their proximity to the enemy coast. And during much of World War II they were actually occupied by Nazi Germany.
The rock-strewn waters around the Channel Islands are among the most treacherous in the world and presented Kydd and his ship with horrific hazards. Over the centuries uncountable vessels were claimed by the sea and lie forever in Davy Jones’ Locker.
The ancient castle of Mont Orgueil at the head of Gorey Bay in Jersey; where Renzi worked with Philippe d’Auvergne
Local experts
As usual, we spent quite a deal of time delving into historical records and talking to various experts. Guernsey has a wonderful local studies centre, the Priaulx, and an excellent library, the Guille Alle. As well, we were given special permission to access eighteenth century documents in the Greffe, the official archives.
Dr Gregory Stevens Cox, a world-renowned historian, provided much useful information on the early nineteenth century and I also spent a fascinating morning with the harbour master, Captain Gill, from whom I learned of the extraordinary tidal and other phenomena that make the Channel Islands so unique.
A trip highlight
A magnificent portrait of Admiral Saumarez
He was one of the most illustrious officers to serve in the Royal Navy, but the achievements of his long naval career were often overshadowed by Horatio Nelson.
Kathy and I also managed to fit in a trip to the neighbouring island of Jersey, to tour over the impressive Mount Orgueil castle, from where the covert operations against the French that I describe in the book were actually carried out. Very atmospheric – I recommend a visit!
Homeward bound
I must say it was with some reluctance that we returned to Devon. With its abundance of fresh produce, and the range of superb French wines, the Channel Islands’ reputation as a foodie paradise is well deserved!
But fine dining aside, my abiding memory of this visit was standing braced on the hills above St Peter Port on a cold wet morning looking out into the storm-tossed seas – and transporting myself back to Kydd’s time to once again marvel at the skill of seamen in wooden ships who pitted themselves against the forces of wind, tide and sea.
‘The big trick is not to miss my stop!’
Posted on July 16, 2014 3 Comments
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I love meeting readers and am often humbled by their range of interests and accomplishments. Although I would love to be able to paint and draw, I do not have any real talent in this area – but I have a great admiration for gifted artists. Recently, Kathy and I met painter/musician – and New Yorker – Joe Ongie at a book-signing in Cornwall and he painted a charming little portrait of the two of us on the spot.
I am delighted to feature Joe as July’s reader of the month as he shares some of his thoughts on my books, art – and life in the Big Apple.
How did you discover the Kydd series?
Joe and me
Was your recent visit to the UK your first time here and what was the purpose of the visit?
I have visited the UK many times and in fact, lived in London for a year in the late 1980s. I dearly love it there, and have always been a bit of an Anglophile. My favorite painters are mostly English (or based in England) and as a musician, I’ve been most influenced by the British Invasion. And, of course, the writers… The purpose of this recent visit was initially motivated by a desire to see the Dame Laura Knight exhibition in Plymouth and to explore Cornwall a bit, and of course do some painting.
If you were going to paint Tom Kydd what features would attract you as an artist?
Joe’s impromptu watercolour sketch of the Stockwins
Do you have a favourite title? Favourite character?
If I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be THE PRIVATEER’S REVENGE/TREACHERY. From the poignant beginning, through to the intrigue and final triumph, and the setting in the Channel Islands, I found this book to be very satisfying… but then they all are. As to a favorite character, it would have to be our heroes, although it’s really the beautifully portrayed relationship between them (and with all the wonderful secondary characters). I truly believe it is these relationships that make for great books, not the plot or or setting.
You live in New York and are very much involved in the vibrant modern life there – so what attracts you to my historical novels set in the Georgian era 200 years ago?
Woman in a Red Beret
by Joe Ongie
What are you working on at the moment?
My days are spent painting and my nights are spent making music, with all the pleasures of this great town sprinkled in between. I recently finished a portrait of a fellow artist and a large charcoal of Senegalese girl. I am planning on yearly trips to the UK to do more extended and serious painting.
More on Joe and his work
Would you like to be a candidate for Reader of the Month? Just get in touch with a few sentences about your background and why you enjoy the Kydd series!
Audiobooks to Go!
Posted on July 1, 2014 7 Comments
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I know there are quite a number of Kydd fans who find the audiobooks a boon, especially on long commutes. But you have to have a good narrator! I’m fortunate to have someone of the calibre of Christian Rodska in that role. He really is incredible – such a range of voices and an emotional expression that just pulls you in!
Christian Rodska
Rodska is a professional actor with a distinguished career. Among his television and stage credits are Macbeth, Driving Miss Daisy, Spooks, Doc Martin and Sharpe. His voice can also be heard on Ice Road Truckers and Megastructures on Channel Five in the UK.
Kathy and I are currently re-listening to the entire Kydd series on audiobooks. But we have to limit ourselves to just half an hour or so a day – or the next book would not be written! At the moment we’re mid-way through MUTINY, so plenty more to enjoy… I calculated that from KYDD up to and including CARIBBEE there’s over 150 hours!
Spoken word recordings first became possible with the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877. However it was to be some time before recordings of full length books became practical – this wasn’t really until the 1930s. The term audiobook came into usage in the 1970s when audiocassettes began to replace records. With the advent of the internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and portable media players, the popularity of audiobooks grew significantly during the late 1990s and 2000s. And this trend continues as people discover the pleasures and convenience of the spoken word.
Less than a year after the invention of the phonograph this drawing offered a vision of the future – but novels would remain impractical for phonographs for 50 years
When W H Howes was set up in the UK it was named after one of Trentman’s distant relatives; a man called William Frank Howes. Howes was a well-known captain of clipper ships during the 1830s. And I was chuffed to find that the salty links do not end there. Christian Rodska is the son of a Danish sailor, who was at one time captained the royal yacht of King Faisal.
Whole Story Audiobooks, the retail arm of WH Howes, is releasing the Kydd Series today under its new Lamplight imprint. To celebrate this, there’s a special discount of 20% on Kydd titles until September. The code is KYDD. Additionally, CARIBBEE is on offer at £14.39 until 11 July. (This site is for customers in the UK and Europe.)
As always, I welcome comments. I’d love to hear if you have a favourite Kydd audiobook or passage in one of the books?
Ninety-six years’ naval service!
Posted on June 24, 2014 7 Comments
I would have loved to have met Provo Wallis!
Throughout maritime history many seamen gave a huge part of their lives to King and Country. In the course of his service at sea, John Balchen saw action in numerous battles against the French and Spanish navies across 60 years and three separate wars. Earl St.Vincent served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years’ War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He chalked up 73 years’ service. But Provo William Parry Wallis beats them all, 96 years in the Royal Navy. Yes, 96 years!
A young officer, Provo Wallis in 1813
It was in the War of 1812, during the now-famous Shannon and Chesapeake incident, 201 years ago this month, that Provo showed his real mettle. HMS Shannon captured USS Chesapeake near Boston on 1 June 1813. Shannon‘s captain, Philip Bowes Vere Broke, was badly wounded during the action and her first lieutenant was killed.
Talk about being thrown in at the deep end! Second Lieutenant Wallis found himself in command of not one but two ships crowded with dead and wounded – as well as prisoners – and close to the enemy coast. In deference to Captain Broke, lying near death in his cabin, Wallis ordered a silent ship. He then sorted out the most pressing concerns, including organising essential repairs, and set course for Halifax. Such was the burden of this command that he did not change his clothes during the six-day voyage and scarcely slept.
Provo went on to serve in various theatres and eventually became admiral of the fleet in 1877.
Provo Wallis in later years
Provo became a much-revered figure in Portsmouth, often being visited by young officers keen to pay their respects to a man who had once set eyes on the great Nelson himself.
Provo liked to row his wife in a little boat around the pond at the back of his house. At the age of 98 he was a special guest on board HMS Monarch during the great naval review to honour the recently crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II.
He’d fought at sea under sail and continued to serve well into an era of steel battleships, torpedoes, submarines and electric power. What he thought of it all has regrettably gone unrecorded…
Provo Wallis died just before his 101st birthday – and at his request was laid to rest as a sailor in a plain wooden casket with a ship’s blanket for a shroud.
Copyright notices
Portrait of a young Wallis: By Robert Field (McCord Museum/ McGill) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; Portrait of older Wallis: Public Domain via Wikipedia
Every effort is made to honour copyright but if we have inadvertently published an image with missing or incorrect attribution, on being informed of this, we undertake to delete the image or add a correct credit notice
BookPick: Arthur Phillip
Posted on June 21, 2014 Leave a Comment
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Arthur Philip
And this biography by Australian Michael Pembroke didn’t disappoint.
Phillip was the first governor of the colony of New South Wales. A somewhat mercurial man, I discovered to my surprise he had many other careers – soldier, mercenary, spy for the British Empire – long before he captained the First Fleet and founded Sydney.
Pembroke’s absorbing tale of Phillip’s life takes us through wars with Spain and France, battles, court martials, and the taking of Havana from the Spanish. In his 20s he married a wealthy widow and briefly became a gentleman farmer. The marriage ended in divorce, before such a thing existed in England, but Phillip then became a successful merchant in France and likely spy for England. In 1774 he became a paid mercenary for the Portuguese navy at the behest of the Admiralty – his enemy again was Spain but now in South America. Upon his return to London some years later, the revolution in the American colonies triggered another war with France and then Spain as well. England faced the possibility of its first invasion since 1588 and Phillip became the captain of a 74 gun ship with a crew of 600 men defending the channel. Phillip is here revealed to have undertaken secret missions for the Admiralty throughout his career and perhaps was among the first to be a part of the Secret Service.
For those wishing to explore the subject matter of this book further, the author provides extensive notes and references to his sources.
Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy by Michael Pembroke RRP £20.00
Published by Hardie Grant. ISBN 978-1742708058
THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER: dangerous waters!
Posted on June 17, 2014 9 Comments
A regular feature looking back on each of the Kydd titles – with story background, research highlights, writing challenges and more.
The eighth book in the Kydd series is THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER. Kydd is back in command of his beloved Teazer but he finds as many challenges ashore as at sea in pursuit of the enemy.
Home Waters
The treacherous Whitsand Bay from Portwrinkle to Rame Head
This was the first Kydd book set in home waters – and I found it to be as wild and exotic a location as any, with spectacles such as the incredible complex of the Plymouth naval base and dockyard. In those pre-factory times it was the wonder of the age, employing thousands of men, when most industries counted their workers in tens at most.
No one in England lives far from the sea and a strong and abiding relationship with Neptune’s kingdom is a national characteristic, but it’s perhaps in the West Country where the maritime heritage is strongest. Since time immemorial, the sea has provided food and transport links between isolated communities, and with hundreds of miles of rocky coastline, and winter storms equal to any it’s also been the graveyard of so many fine ships.
I spent many hours exploring the iron-bound coast and shoreline. I chose Whitsand Bay, the scene of many all-too-familiar wrecks on the Cornish coast for a dramatic incident in the book. Kydd’s ship Teazer is making heavy weather of it back to the safety of Plymouth Sound and sights another vessel perilously close inshore. But despite heroic efforts by Kydd and his crew the other ship breaks up and the sailors perish, their strength spent in exhaustion and cold.
The book’s dedication
Given incidents like the one in Whitsand Bay it seemed appropriate to use this verse Martyn Parker wrote, some 200 years ago
- Ye gentlemen of England that live at home at ease
Ah! Little do you think upon the dangers of the seas!
His words still have resonance today.
Research
In the course of location research, as well as taking in the general area of the West Country, I spent some time in the picturesque fishing village of Polperro in Cornwall. Kathy and I stayed in a smugglers cottage dating back to even before Kydd’s day.
The Polperro smugglers’ cottage we stayed in
When doing location research finding local inhabitants with knowledge and expertise is always invaluable. For THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER there were many I had to thank, including former harbour master Tony White and historian Jeremy Johns – but a special debt is owed to ex-fisherman Bill Cowan who schooled me in the lore and practice of the Cornish fishery, and shipwright Ron Butters, whose wonderfully crafted models of fishing vessels under sail told me all I need to know about these hardy craft.
If you’re ever in Polperro it’s worth visiting the Polperro Heritage Museum of Smuggling and Fishing which houses a fascinating collection of exhibits. It’s open March to October.
In Plymouth, which is actually not far from my home in Devon, I was privileged to be given a special private tour of Stonehouse Royal Marine Barracks. The Long Room, where Kydd attended the ball, still stands tall within the complex. As well, Kathy and I put in considerable footwork in Old Plymouth pacing out the very streets that Kydd comes to know in the book.
An ancestral link!
Deep into document-based research I discovered that my wife Kathy is related to one of the real-life characters in the story! Did she, I casually asked one day, poring over some arcane document or other, by any chance have an English ancestor by the name of John Stackhouse? Unsure, Kathy emailed her parents in Tasmania, Keith and Cressey Stackhouse, and was amazed to learn that indeed she was related to him. John Stackhouse was born in Cornwall in 1742. After completing his education at Oxford, he spent several years studying marine biology around the Mediterranean; his particular interest was seaweed. He married a Susanna Acton and built Acton Castle above what is now known as Stackhouse Cove. Kathy is a descendant of Alfred Stackhouse who settled in Van Diemen’s Land in the nineteenth century and whose grandfather was John Stackhouse’s brother!
Now why can’t I have some illustrious ancestry…
Writing challenges
THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER made it to the cold wastes of Patagonia aboard HMS Southampton
Perhaps the greatest challenge I encountered when writing this book was how to deal with the two loves in Kydd’s life, Persephone and Rosalynd. I think in some ways I fell in love with both of them, too…
Of all the aspects of Kydd’s life I have written about this is the one that has generated the most comment from readers. Some have told me they thought Kydd mad to give up Persephone and all she would have meant for his career. Others stood firmly with Kydd in his decision to follow his heart and marry sweet Rosalynd. The debate will continue, no doubt!
My thanks to Kydd
Becoming an author has meant that I‘ve met people from many walks of life all over the world – certainly in my previous profession as a computer systems designer it would have been unlikely for our paths to have crossed. There are far too many new friends and acquaintances directly attributable to Thomas Kydd to acknowledge them all, but I know I’m enriched by every one of them. To be able to write for one’s living is a great privilege; I know I’m very fortunate.
News: THE SILK TREE to be published in November!
Posted on June 12, 2014 33 Comments
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Exciting news! This year, as well as the next book in the ongoing Kydd series, PASHA (coming out in October), I’m bringing out another historical action-adventure novel, THE SILK TREE.
Toasting the upcoming launch in November of THE SILK TREE with Allison & Busby’s Publishing Director Susie Dunlop
Rooted in the historical record, this is an epic quest across an immense and hostile geographical canvas. It is also a tale of friendship and courage; myth and love.
So how did this book come about? On location research in Istanbul Kathy discovered a rather lovely silk scarf in the Grand Bazaar. While she was chatting to the merchant I idly wondered just how it was that silk was brought from China to the West. Intrigued, I did some research and the creative juices started flowing – I knew I had another story I had to tell …
It’s been hard work balancing two writing schedules but I’m thrilled that the British publisher Allison & Busby shares my enthusiasm for the story and are bringing out THE SILK TREE in November in hardback and ebook.
More on THE SILK TREE in upcoming blogs…
The website
From Sea Scout to Master of the Lady Nelson
Posted on June 9, 2014 2 Comments
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Brian Hodgson is a volunteer master for the replica brig Lady Nelson and has many years’ maritime experience under his belt.
I met Brian on my last visit to Tasmania, where he offered me the great honour of taking the helm of Lady Nelson – it was the highlight of my trip! I certainly commend a sail in her to anyone visiting Hobart.
I am delighted to introduce Brian as June’s Guest Blogger.
Over to Brian…
Brian Hodgson at the helm of Lady Nelson
People ask me how did I become a master of a square rigger. My early nautical experiences were with the 1st Derwent Sea Scouts in Hobart, where we had two old naval gigs which we rowed up and down the harbour – and occasionally set the lug sails.
After graduation from university I worked in Canada for two years as a forester and then returned to Tasmania. I became involved in helping to build the replica of Norfolk, the ship that Bass and Flinders sailed in 1798 and discovered the existence of Bass Strait that separates Tasmania (then called Van Diemen’s land) from the rest of Australia, thus providing a quicker trip to Sydney and avoiding the perils of the west coast of Tasmania. Bern Cuthbertson was the mover and shaker for this project.
The replica Norfolk
For two and a half years each weekend I would drive to Ellendale in the Derwent Valley to work on the craft. The ship was built in the old fashion with trunnels to secure all the planking (wooden pins instead of nails). I think from memory there were about 4500 trunnels used in the construction of Norfolk. She has been crafted from Huon Pine, one of the best timbers for fine boat building. The Forestry Commission had been very generous in donating several salvaged Huon Pine logs which were broken down into planks in our sawmill on site at Ellendale.
After Norfolk was launched I was offered a position in the crew to undertake the re-enactment of Bass and Flinders’ voyage from Sydney, down the coast and through Bass Strait and thence down the West Coast of Tasmania to Hobart. Being a replica of the original, facilities were very basic and somewhat cramped for 10 crew. Working four hourly watch on–watch off was extremely tiring. Much of the food was dried or freeze dried. Drinking water was in a 200 litre barrel. For the call of nature, it was a matter of dropping the trousers and sitting over the cathead, being as quick as possible otherwise ending with a very wet rear end!
Lady Nelson
One of my most vivid memories from that trip was the night we anchored midstream in Mercury Passage in the Kent Group of islands waiting for the strong SW winds to decrease. We were at the end of a very long anchor rope that was bar tight. In the pitch black we stood hourly anchor watches checking the rope for any wear. If that rope had snapped we would have been in a dire position.
Crossing Bass Strait from Eden to landfall at Beauty Point took ten days, for a normal two day trip. We were hit by storms, blown back and forth and even becalmed. We experienced a predawn mirage which made us think we were further off course than expected and could easily see the image of Flinders Island to the east. We made the decision to alter course to the west, but in actual fact that was not necessary and put us way off our planned course. It was only as we sighted the coast and hill outlines of the northern coast of Tasmania, that we realized our error. Food supplies were exhausted and by the time the launch came out from George Town to tow us in we were ecstatic to see them hand over a fresh loaf of bread, some butter and honey!
After the Norfolk re-enactment I was at a bit of loss for sailing and joined Lady Nelson, initially to assist in maintenance of the vessel.
The replica brig Lady Nelson is operated by the Tasmanian Sail Training Association, a voluntary organisation. She was built in Tasmania in 1998 as an Australian bicentennial project for the state. The Association is unique in that all the crew are volunteers, even the Master who must have commercial qualifications and is unpaid. There is no other square rigger operated in the other Australian states that has an all unpaid crew.
At the time I joined there were some initial attempts to have a formal training course and I took on the task of setting up all the competencies for rating levels of deckhand, senior deckhand, bosun and uncertificated Watchkeeper. We take people who have never been on the water before and can train them up to the equivalent of a commercial coxswain. To complement the competencies required the preparation of the ship’s operational manual. This task was commenced in 2003 and I am now working on the fourth update.
Admiral, possibly Australia’s oldest commercial boat
I undertook the formal commercial training courses for Coxswain, Marine Engine Driver and also finally Master’s certificate, at the Australian Maritime College. A requirement for being master of a square rigger in Tasmania is additional tickets of square rig and fore and aft sail endorsements. These can only be obtained by on the job training. There is no course such as that offered by the Royal Nautical Institute, UK.
Being a voluntary organisation, not for profit and with no sponsor ship, Lady Nelson operates harbour sails for tourists each weekend and for schools and other groups during the week. Lady Nelson is also used by the nautical training organisations for ship handling and engineering training, and also by Tasmanian Police to practice helicopter rescue at sea operations.
Some longer charters demonstrate the full potential of the vessel for longer cruises. A Victorian school comes over each year for five days’ sailing, as do the Bendigo naval cadets for deep water experience. Some of our most enjoyable trips have been with a local girls’ school which has a major outdoor camp each year for its grade 9 students down at Recherche Bay in the south of the state. Here they live under canvas and undertake activities such as sea kayaking, hiking, caveneering, mountain bike riding and each day a different group come out in Lady Nelson for a days’ sailing.
The charter of the organisation is to make the vessel available to all persons in Tasmania, and to fulfill that obligation the vessel is routinely taken north, and has completed several circumnavigations of Tasmania. This enables our own crew members to get open water experience and visit such places as Port Arthur, Wineglass Bay, Schouten Passage and Port Davey. One of my favourite places is the narrow passage through Tasman Passage between Tasman Island and Cape Pillar. Every time we go up north we take the up the challenge to take the vessel through this gap with majestic cliffs each side.
Lord and Lady Nelson
(Lord Nelson is one of the vessels of the Jubilee Sailing Trust)
Hobart is also home of the acclaimed Australian Wooden Boat Festival, the top wooden boat festival in the Southern Hemisphere. The festival is held every two years and attracts massive crowds and overseas visitors. The next event is in February 2015.
As an aside, the original Lady Nelson on her voyage out from England was the first vessel to pass west to east through Bass Strait after its discovery by Bass and Flinders when they went from east to west…so I have a close association with both replica vessels and Bass Strait.
Lady Nelson website
‘In the Wake of Bass and Flinders – 200 years on’ by Bern Cuthbertson, is a fascinating account of the building of Norfolk
Norfolk is on permanent display in the Bass and Flinders Centre
Brian has also worked on the restoration of Admiral
Photos: courtesy Brian Hodgson; Lord and Lady Nelson photograph: A. Cusick
Contest: Win an audiobook of CARIBBEE!
Posted on June 7, 2014 4 Comments
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I was thrilled when I heard that Christian Rodska was again chosen as narrator of the latest Kydd audiobook. A very accomplished story-teller, he brings an atmosphere and excitement to the experience that in my opinion is perfect for my Kydd tales
CARIBBEE is available now as a CD set for ‘listeners’ in the UK and Europe from Whole Story Audiobooks
(It will be released in the US and other countries at a later date. If you would like an alert just send me an email with ‘CD Set Alert’ in the subject line)
The CARIBBEE Unabridged Audio Set comprises 10 CDs, total listening time is 11 hours, 15 minutes.
CARIBBEE audiobook
For a chance to win a CARIBBEE CD set email me julian@julianstockwin.com with the total number of Kydd titles published to date, up to and including CARIBBEE. Please include your full postal address.
The first five correct entries out of the hat on June 25 will be the winners.
CARIBBEE is also available now as an audio download via Amazon UK and Amazon US
‘I discovered Kydd in Kazakhstan!’
Posted on June 3, 2014 1 Comment
It always gives me a thrill to hear of my Kydd tales being read in particularly exotic or unusual locales. They’ve been up the Amazon, carried to the frozen North and choppered in to a remote mining town in Western Australia – to name just a few. Now I can add Kazakhstan to the list!
The June Reader of the Month is John Askew, who’s been involved in civil and structural engineering across a variety of fields. He’s now a CSA Design Lead/Discipline Application Specialist working in the oil and energy sector in Kazakhstan, central Asia. And in case you need a bit of a geography refresher it’s the world’s largest landlocked country by land area – in size, bigger than Western Europe!
Over to John…I originally came to Kazakhstan in 2002 to train the locals on 2D and 3D systems and how to utilise these systems in an integrated engineering environment – in short, how to use the latest technology to build refineries. As an expat I am on a rotation contract, 6 weeks in country and then 2 weeks at home. [When John goes home on leave these days it’s to Spain but he’s lived in many parts of the world visited by Kydd, including England, South Africa and Australia]
I discovered the Kydd series by accident. The hotel where we worked and lived, Riverside Palace, on the banks of the Ural River, had a book collection donated by other engineers. I read the blurb of the first book and was drawn in…..I lived at the time in Camberley and frequented Guildford often (cinemas!) so I had a connection immediately. Very soon I became addicted.
The thorough detailed descriptions of life on board a British Navy ship in those late 18th century days of war became vivid for me. I actually imagined myself ‘below decks’. The harsh reality of being conscripted and then accepting one’s fate and learning to deal with it was something I would have done. In Kydd’s case he decided to make the most out of his situation, become a good sailor and the rest is history as they say.
My wife and I visited Portsmouth in 2002 because of KYDD and took lots of pics, especially the beautiful HMS Victory. Alas my PC crashed and I lost them all. We need to go back one day, we have relatives in Devon so it may be an excuse during a family visit…
I would say without question the first book was – and still is – my favourite. It tells of the journey from apprentice wig maker to accepting a harsh new life without question, but it’s to a far more exciting, challenging and rewarding life.
My favourite character would be Kydd, followed by his friend and confidante Renzi.
John Askew and his wife
Unfortunately my only connection with the sea is my cousin who was in the Royal Navy for some time in the 60’s, eventually becoming Petty Officer. I have lived as much as possible by the sea in the UK, Teignmouth and Torquay; in Spain, Malaga and El Campello; in South Africa, Mossel bay and in Australia, Perth. My wife and I both love the smell, the sound and the vastness of the ocean to gaze upon every morning….maybe a longing in the genes to go back to where we all came from.
My Parents are also living nearby in El Campello overlooking the sea. My father, who is 85 in December, is now an avid reader of Thomas Kydd’s adventures. I gave him my copy of KYDD last year and he reads all the books now like a machine! Needless to say, I have to order the new hardback for his birthday!
Would you like to be a candidate for Reader of the Month? Just get in touch with a few sentences about your background and why you enjoy the Kydd series!
Copyright notices
Every effort is made to honour copyright but if we have inadvertently published an image with missing or incorrect attribution, on being informed of this, we undertake to delete the image or add a correct credit notice
Julian Stockwin 