Quarterdeck CELEBRATING MARITIME LITERATURE & ART

September/October 2016

Contents

Quarterdeck A B-M J

S / O 2016

INTERVIEW 5

Julian Stockwin English novelist Julian Stockwin discusses storytelling, characterization, and his immediate writing future

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COLUMNS 3

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Scuttlebutt News from nautical and historical fiction, naval and maritime history, maritime museums and marine art By George! George Jepson reminisces about a visit with English novelist Alexander Fullerton and his wife, Priscilla.

Quarterdeck is published bi-monthly by Tall Ships Communications 6952 Cypress Bay Drive Kalamazoo, MI 49009 269-372-4673 EDITOR & MANAGING DIRECTOR George D. Jepson [email protected] OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Amy A. Jepson [email protected]

Essay “Stunning Victory” by Seth Hunter McBOOKS

DEPARTMENTS 10

press

Quarterdeck is distributed by McBooks Press, Inc. ID Booth Building 520 North Meadow Street Ithaca, NY 14850

Review Inferno by Julian Stockwin

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Review The Powder of Death by Julian Stockwin

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Review The Notorious Captain Hayes by Joan Druett

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Review Night Wolf by James L. Nelson

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Sea Fiction

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Historical Fiction

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Naval History

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Biography

PUBLISHER Alexander Skutt 607-272-2114 [email protected] www.mcbooks.com ART DIRECTOR Panda Musgrove [email protected] EDITORIAL DIRECTOR EMERITUS Jackie Swift

ON THE COVER: English novelist Julian Stockwin in the Royal Danish Naval Museum, Copenhagen, with a model of the Danish Navy ship-of-the-line Phoenix, which was launched 1810. (Photo by Kathy Stockwin)

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Photo courtesy of Roy and Lesley Adkins.

Scuttlebutt New Book Launches 2016 US (United States) UK (United Kingdom) TPB (Trade Paperback) PB (Paperback) HB (Hardback) EB (Ebook) NF (Nonfiction)

Roy and Lesley Adkins

ROY AND LESLEY ADKINS

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nglish historians Roy and Lesley Adkins (authors of Jack Tar, Jane Austen’s England and other titles) have recently started to research and write a book about the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83), something that has obsessed them for years. It was one of the most remarkable military episodes in modern history, when the limits of human endurance were tested to the extreme. For over three-and-a-half years, a garrison of British, German and Corsican soldiers and a civilian community held firm against everything that the combined Spanish and French forces devised to dislodge them. The story involves naval skirmishes and battles, shipwrecks, fireships, floating batteries, military innovations, Britain under threat of invasion, the loss of America, ordinary people coping with extraordinary events, and much more. The book will be published by Little, Brown (UK) and Viking Penguin (North America).

SEPTEMBER The Time of Terror (USTPB) by Seth Hunter The Tide of War (USTPB) by Seth Hunter The Price of Glory (USTPB) by Seth Hunter Death’s Bright Angel (UKPB) by J. D. Davies OCTOBER

JULIAN STOCKWIN

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Photo by George Jepson.

tarting in 2017, two new titles in the Thomas Kydd sea adventures will be published annually. Following the release of Inferno in October, book 18 will be launched next June, followed by book 19 in October. Books 20 and 21 will be published in June and October respectively in 2018. Stockwin’s British editor at Hodder & Stoughton, Oliver Johnson, called the increased publishing schedule “a testament to the enduring popularity of this series. Julian’s Kydd books are the most in-demand [among] current series Julian Stockwin set in the Age of Fighting Sail. Stockwin said, “It’s been a pleasure working with my publishers McBooks Press and Hodder & Stoughton. My readers regularly tell me to “please write faster! I'm delighted that from next year we are able to make this a reality. Fair winds and a following sea!” 3 | September / October 2016

Inferno (USHB/UKHB) by Julian Stockwin Tyger (USTPB) by Julian Stockwin Arizona Moon (USHB) by J. M. Graham The Fleet at Flood Tide (USHB) by James D. Hornfischer NOVEMBER A Treacherous Coast (UKHB) by David Donachie

By George!

Sandy and Priscilla

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N A SUNNY SPRING morning in 2001, Amy and I boarded a south-bound train at London’s Victoria Station. Our destination was Haywards Heath in Sussex on the South Downs, a range of chalk hills, which are spread across England’s southeastern coastal counties. Thirty minutes later, we disembarked at Haywards Heath. Outside the brown brick, early-1930s-era station, we were met by Alexander Fullerton, the ruddy-cheeked English novelist. Over the previous few months, we had corresponded by letters and arranged to meet while we were in the United Kingdom. As we settled ourselves in his small car, he said, “Please call me Sandy.” With that, we were whisked along narrow country lanes to Beechland Lodge, the lovely rural two-story cottage Sandy shared with his wife, Priscilla, near the village of Newick. Lightly wooded gardens, with a wealth of shrubs, trees and wild flowers surrounded the cottage, which has a stunning southerly view over the Downs. Inside the airy and neat home, we met Priscilla, who impressed us as the epitome of a lovely, proper English woman. Over tea, the couple shared the story behind their relationship. During the Second World War, they met while both were in the British Royal Navy, Sandy in submarines and Priscilla in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens). But it was wartime and Priscilla married someone else, which Sandy described as a “terrible mistake.” After the war, he married a South African girl and emigrated to Cape Town, where he ini-

tially worked for a Swedish shipping company. During this period, he wrote his first novel, Surface!, a submarine thriller, which Alexander Fullerton was published in 1953, launching his writing career. After being introduced to a group of London publishers, he was hired as their representative in South, Central and East Africa, where he “sold a lot of books.” As a result, he was invited to return to the UK as Home Sales Manager for William Heinemann publishing, where he crossed paths with another British naval veteran–turnedauthor, Douglas Reeman. By then, both Sandy and Priscilla were divorced. Fate brought them together once again in London, and they were married, embarking on a decades long love affair, which had recently reached 50 years. Observing them, as they related their story, their mutual affection was in full view. In the wake of Surface!, Sandy’s body of work grew with each passing year. Many of his novels were naturally related to his naval service, including the highly popular Nicholas Everard World War II Saga (see page 21), as well as standalone titles like Band of Brothers, A Wren Called Smith, Love for an Enemy, and Submariner. As a boy, the greatest share of Sandy’s reading revolved around the First World War. The scenes, he said, “became familiar – in long retro-

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

Photo by George Jepson.

Interview

Julian Stockwin above Polperro, the historic smuggling village on the rugged Channel coast in Cornwall.

JULIAN STOCKWIN BY GEORGE JEPSON

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ULIAN STOCKWIN’S LATEST Thomas Kydd sea adventure, Inferno, hits bookshops in the United States (McBooks Press) and United Kingdom (Hodder & Stoughton) in early October. In late August, his new historical novel, The Powder of Death, was recently launched by Allison & Busby in the UK. Inferno (see review on page 9) is the seventeenth title in the Kydd saga, and follows Tyger, which will be released in a new trade paperback edition by McBooks Press in October. Starting in 2017, two titles a year will be published in the series (see Scuttlebutt on page 3). Two years ago, Stockwin’s “The GameChangers: Moments of History Series” made its debut, when

The Silk Tree was published in the UK. The Powder of Death (see review on page 10), a standalone novel, is Stockwin’s second offering in the series. In this new interview with Quarterdeck, the author discusses storytelling, characterization, and his immediate writing future: Inferno is the seventeenth title in the Kydd series. How many more are over the horizon? When I first decided to write about one man pressganged into the Royal Navy in the Age of Fighting Sail, who would eventually make admiral, I flow-charted the likely progression of the books, including the rate and rank of the major characters, their ship, what battles

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they are involved in, female interest, etc. It was rather daunting to see that I had twelve outlines! How could I find enough material to sustain that many books? Well, I have had to revise that upwards considerably. The more I have delved into the rich historical record, the more scope I have found for Kydd’s ongoing adventures. Inferno comes out in October. I have started the following book and there will be at least another four or five after that. And I can immodestly say that I have never repeated a plot line.

I first met Orlogskaptjn Tonny Larsen, premier ice navigator and square sail mariner, when I was working on a large NATO software project and he was the Danish Navy liaison officer. Over the years we became close friends and I was honored when he flew over to England for the launch of my second book, Artemis, at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. I subsequently visited him in Denmark several times, and I was very saddened at his passing last year. It seemed fitting to dedicate Inferno, which deals with the Second Battle of Copenhagen, to Tonny.

Photo by Julian Stockwin.

Inferno is dedicated to a Danish naval officer, Tonny Larsen. Why did you dedicate the book to him?

Above: Kathy Stockwin with The Little Mermaid, a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Stockwins were in Copenhagen collecting research material for the new Thomas Kydd novel, Inferno. Below: Julian Stockwin with his friend, the late Orlogskaptajn Tonny Larsen, premier ice navigator and square sail mariner, in Copenhagen.

Photo by Kathy Stockwin.

Something in the human psyche craves storytelling. Within nautical fiction, there are vicarious pleasures to be had when encountering hurricanes, sea-battles and other hazards from the comfort of an armchair. With your background in psychology, how would you explain this need? Storytelling sets us apart from the other creatures of Nature’s realm, allowing us to venture to places in our minds we 6 | September / October 2016

could never visit in reality, to experience sensations denied in an everyday existence. And it is without risk to try out how we ourselves would feel and react in adventuresome situations. On the one hand, storytelling is pure entertainment. On the other, it fulfils a vital role in passing on knowledge and morality – a sense of right and wrong. For the Englishman, the sea has ever been part of his psyche, and while many may never sail far on the watery realm, there is a deep and often unacknowledged relationship that is fed by sea-going tales. I think this is particularly true with respect to the Great Age of Fighting Sail. Then, man could never defy the sea as today; he had to woo both wind and wave to his side, using all his skill and guile to get what he wanted.

Tyger by Julian Stockwin

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n the 16th volume in the popular highseas nautical adventure series featuring the dashing naval Captain Thomas Kydd, Kydd is offered a new command, but that ship is still under construction, so he decides to look up one of his old naval friends and enjoy some of the pleasures of London. This is cut short when he is summoned to Portsmouth to bear witness at the trial of Sir Home Popham for his actions at Cape Town and Buenos Aires. Kydd confides in friends his true feelings about the way his old commander was treated and, when his opinions become public, finds himself in hot water with the Admiralty. Kydd is punished for his indiscretion by being given a different command: a mutiny ship, Tyger, moored at Yarmouth. On board he faces numerous challenges from a hostile and dejected crew, still under a malign influence. McBooks Press, $17.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $9.99, Kindle / $10.49, NOOK

The novel is also the perfect medium for delving into the private and otherwise inaccessible inner world of other people’s thoughts and ideas. How important is the psychological dimension to you as a writer? Yes, the novel can do much that bare history cannot in terms of exploring thoughts and ideas of another time and place. One of the first questions I asked myself when I started the Kydd series was actually generated by some statistics I came across. Of the six hundred thousand or so British seamen who fought in the Napoleonic wars, amazingly, around one hundred and twenty became officers, crossing the great divide between officers and seamen. Of these, perhaps twenty or so were promoted to captain of their own ship – and five made admiral! His-

AVAILABLE IN OCTOBER

tory left us very little record of these achievers, but my imagination was fired. What kind of men were they? What strength of character could impel them to rise above most of their fellows in an age when social divides were far greater than today? As you shape Thomas Kydd’s character, how do you approach the development of each step in his growth and maturity as a person? Did you draw on personal experiences over the course of your life? Having been a computer systems designer, I am quite disciplined in my work. I have kept a very extensive record of Kydd’s development in each book, as he rose from 7 | September / October 2016

pressed man to officer to captain. And yes, I do draw on personal experience to some degree. I joined the Navy on the lower deck and eventually became an officer, like Kydd. I also find that at the beginning of a new book it is useful to chart Kydd’s motivations and personal challenges on a large white board. This gives a visual story arc. How did you select Kydd’s name? Ah! I thought long and hard about this, wrote down hundreds of possible names from the period and wandered through numbers of graveyards looking at eighteenth century tombstones. In fact I was nearly arrested at one time for loi-

“Writing about Nelson’s death was both difficult and quite emotional for me. I have been very touched that some readers have been moved to tears at the end of this book.” tering over long in a graveyard in Guildford. I knew I wanted a name that was manly, of the time, but also with a modern ring. Princess Diana’s mother’s name was Frances Shand Kydd. “Kydd” somehow rang a bell, and when I checked I confirmed it would certainly have been found in Georgian times. As an aside, I wanted to have as my hero someone not at all connected with the sea, taken against his will into His Majesty’s Royal Navy, but who grows to love the life and find in himself a natural ability as a seaman. I chose to have him as a wigmaker, somewhat on a whim. This was an occupation facing many challenges with changes in society at that time, and through this I could also reflect the Georgian age ashore. Your spectacularly successful Kydd series is multi-volume. Is every book self-contained? That’s a question I am quite often asked. Yes, every title in the Kydd series is self-contained and may be read as a standalone novel, with enough back story for the reader to be able to pick up the thread of previous books. Quite a few of my readers have come across a Kydd title, in a bookstore, or perhaps been given one as a present, and

from there decided to take in the whole series. It’s a personal choice for the reader whether to begin with the first book and read the rest in order, or start with a particular title that appeals. And I’m deeply touched that a number of readers have told me they go back right through the series while awaiting their next Kydd fix. From your perspective, what is the main advantage of appearing at literary festivals? Writing, by its nature, must be a solitary occupation. A novel takes me many months to create, from inception through research to the actual writing. During this time I do get feedback from my wife and literary partner, Kathy, which is invaluable, but as professional as she is (a former magazine editor in chief), there is nothing to compare with actual interaction with readers. This happens through various social media and personal reader emails, but face-to-face feedback only comes with events like the recent Leviathan and other literary festivals. One of the reasons I was enthused about Leviathan is that it was unashamedly maritime in focus. Being the Old Salt that I am it was a splendid opportunity to chew the fat with other maritime writers, 8 | September / October 2016

both fiction and non-fiction. Of the books you’ve written, which is your favorite or the most personally meaningful? That is like asking a parent which child he loves best! My first book, Kydd will always have a special place in my heart, but if pressed for the most personally moving I would probably choose Victory. Writing about Nelson’s death was both difficult and quite emotional for me. I have been very touched that some readers have been moved to tears at the end of this book. Your second standalone historical novel, The Powder of Death, has just been published in England by Allison & Busby. What were the challenges of developing the historical storyline compared to your Kydd novels? Both standalones were in very different historical time periods to my Kydd tales so there was a huge amount of new research required for each book. However, I believe that novels should be character-led and so a major challenge was creating the sympathetic main characters for each book that fitted their historical milieu.

Will you continue to write standalone historical fiction, along with your naval stories?

The Silk Tree by Julian Stockwin

Yes, I enjoy these, but for the short term they will go on the back burner as I am contracted, from next year, to produce two Kydd titles a year. I’m looking forward to the challenge! And of course this would not be possible without all the support I receive from Kathy, my wife and literary partner. What was the last great book you read? Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It tackles some of the really BIG questions facing mankind. Do you have an all-time favorite book about the sea, one that you return to periodically? I don’t have much time for recreational reading these days! But I do treasure my copies of C. S. Forester’s Hornblower books.

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orced to flee Rome from the barbaric rampages of the Ostrogoths, merchant Nicander meets an unlikely ally in the form of Marius, a fierce Roman legionary. Escaping to a new life in Constantinople, the two land upon its shores lonely and penniless. Needing to make money fast, they plot and plan a number of outrageous money-making schemes, until they chance upon their greatest idea yet. Armed with a wicked plan to steal precious silk seeds from the faraway land of Seres, Nicander and Marius must embark upon a terrifyingly treacherous journey across unknown lands, never before completed. But first they must deceive the powerful emperor Justinian and the rest of his formidable Byzantine Empire in order to begin their journey into the unknown. An adventurous tale of mischief, humor and deception, Nicander and Marius face danger of the highest order, where nothing in the land of the Roman Empire is quite what it seems. Allison & Busby, £7.99, UK Paperback

AVAILABLE NOW

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Photo by Kathy Stockwin.

Just to say thank-you for all their wonderful comments on social media and emails to me about the books. It is very humbling to be told by readers that they delve into my Kydd tales more than once, and a number of them re-read the series in its entirety before each new release! Visit Julian Stockwin online at www.julianstockwin.com. Julian Stockwin with Danish Kydd fan Marcus Bjørn at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. 9 | September / October 2016

Review

INFERNO BY JULIAN STOCKWIN

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ULIAN STOCKWIN’S stock-in-trade throughout the Thomas Kydd naval adventures has been creating stirring original, authentic, history-based stories, which often cover completely new subject matter in the genre. Stockwin splices a mariner’s sense of the sea, with a historian’s keen eye, to craft matchless trueto-life naval adventures. Immersing himself in minutiae, he leaves no stone unturned in bringing a Kydd novel to life. Whether it’s describing sail handling, a famed naval action, or a slice of Georgian England, the passage is based on factual resources. Inferno, the seventeenth installment in the Thomas Kydd canon, brings another compelling epic to the fore. It’s 1807 and INFERNO Captain Sir ThomMcBooks Press, $23.95, U.S. Hardback / as Kydd is ashore, $12.99, Kindle and NOOK while his frigate, Tyger, is under repair in drydock, after her gallant action against three enemy frigates in the Baltic. Hailed as a hero, Kydd craves “space to find himself again; to get away somewhere blessedly remote and peaceful . . .” This lands him in a small, remote village along

Scotland’s rocky western coast, with Tyger seaman Toby Stirk, who is recovering from wounds suffered in the recent frigate battle. When a mysterious gold doubloon surfaces, the mates are drawn into a perilous undersea treasure hunt, thrusting Kydd into an ethical dilemma. At the same time, Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories across Europe and his Continental System – a broad embargo against British trade – threatens England’s economy. But the Emperor’s plan has one critical weakness: Denmark and her navy control the straits through which Baltic trade flows. In an effort to thwart the French, Nicholas Renzi – Lord Farndon – is dispatched by the government on a diplomatic mission to Copenhagen to prevail upon the Danish government to turn its fleet over to the British. Faced with the French army on its border and the Royal Navy at sea, the Danes demur, and risk being caught between two warring forces. Returning from Scotland, Captain Kydd resumes command of Tyger and sails with a grand fleet and a military force bound for the Baltic on a mission to sway Denmark’s Crown Prince to surrender the Danish fleet. Failing this, the Danish ships could be unleashed by the French against the British. This leads to the Second Battle of Copenhagen, with the British bombarding the city over four days. Meanwhile, Lord Farndon and his wife, Cecilia – Thomas Kydd’s sister – are caught in the blazing inferno. Stockwin’s passion for the sea, naval service, and the time of Nelson oozes from the pages like fresh, hot pitch between the seams of a man-of-war’s deck.

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GEORGE JEPSON

Review

THE POWDER OF DEATH BY JULIAN STOCKWIN

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UNPOWDER WAS INVENTED in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), but it was not until the Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century that awareness of it spread throughout the Old World (Africa, Europe and Asia). How the black powder, the earliest known chemical explosive, eventually reached England has been lost to history. It was this thread that Julian Stockwin picked up to create The Powder of Death, the second title in his GameChangers: Moments of History Series, which engages memorable fictional characters with marked turning points in the past. By 1261, the secret of the deadly powder was known to Oxford scholar Roger Bacon and his friend, Flemish Franciscan missionTHE POWDER OF DEATH ary and explorer Allison & Busby, £19.99, William of RuUK Hardback bruck. The colleagues vowed to remain silent about what they rightly perceived to be a terrible threat to mankind. The Powder of Death picks up in 1287, the fifteenth year of the reign of King Edward I, when Jared of Hurnwych, a young English blacksmith

suffers unbearable tragedy. Tormented by heartbreak, he embarks on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land “until the remembrances had finally quite faded.” On a voyage to Venice, Jared encounters Sir Nicholas Gayne, who bids him to join the Knights Hospitallers as the blacksmith for King Edward’s holy crusade. At the siege of Acre, the Crusaders and the city fall to the Saracens, and he is imprisoned. In a fateful move, Jared is sold “as a skilled foreign craftsman”to the Mongols, who take him to Tabriz. While working in the Mongol capital, “a flash and almighty clap of thunder” expose him to the capacity behind huo yao – the secret powder – for devastation. Although half a world away, Jared dreams about Hurnwych and wreaking vengeance on those who shattered his quiet life. Closely observing his Mongol captors, he pieces together the formula for the volatile powder. On a warring expedition to Armenian Celicia, the Mongols are defeated, and Jared is liberated by Knights Hospitallers, who are Christian allies of the Celicians. Months later, he returns to Hurnwych, carrying the mystery of huo yao. What will Jared do with his knowledge? Sensing a “divine charge,” he ventures forth on a path that leads him across Europe and, finally, to the Battle of Stanhope Park, County Durham, England, in 1327, during the First War of Scottish Independence. Julian Stockwin, a master of the historic novel, writes with a zeal, re-creating ancient times, with fast-paced prose, vivid characters, and matchless authenticity. Powder smoke and the stench of brimstone waft off the pages.

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GEORGE JEPSON

Review

THE NOTORIOUS CAPTAIN HAYES BY JOAN DRUETT

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APTAIN WILLIAM “BULLY” Hayes became a legend across the Pacific, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. Newspapers celebrated his wicked ways from Honolulu to Singapore, Hong Kong to Manila, and Saigon to Sydney. The more outrageous Hayes’s behavior became, the better editors and the reading public liked it. Separating fact from fiction about the master mariner never got in the way of a good yarn. To research The Notorious Captain Hayes, New Zealand maritime historian and novelist Joan Druett spent fifteen years poring through the recorded flotsam and THE NOTORIOUS jetsam left in the CAPTAIN HAYES wake of Hayes’ reHarperCollins, $13.99, markable life to get Ebook at the truth about the character many called the “consummate scoundrel.” Hayes was believed to have been born in Cleveland, Ohio, about 1828 or 1829. As a young man, he initially learned seamanship sailing the

Great Lakes during the schooner era. Arriving in the Pacific in the 1850s, he left his mark in seemingly every port he visited. “Wherever he went,” writes Druett, “a tsunami of headlines seethed in his wake . . . ‘THE HISTORY OF A CONSUMMATE SCOUNDREL’ blared a Honolulu paper in September 1859, just months after he had arrived in Hawaii . . .” Among the dastardly deeds attributed to Hayes was murder, serial debt-dodging, piracy, bigamy (he loved women), swindling, plain thievery, and engaging in the infamous “coolie trade” and other forms of slavery. Journalists were inescapably drawn to these crimes, often imaginatively embellishing reality, which romanticized the rogue and further aroused interest in him from one end of the Pacific to the other. Despite his black-hearted ways, Hayes was considered to be a competent shipmaster and a strict authoritarian aboard the vessels he commanded. An Englishman named Hines, sailing as an ordinary seaman in the barque C. W. Bradley, recalled: “Every man aboard was afraid of him, and his discipline was almost as strict as a man-o’-warsman.” By the time Hayes met his maker in 1877 at the hands of an enraged Norwegian sailor, stories from his life had been documented in newspaper archives and books. The Bully Hayes saga was alive well into the twentieth century. Joan Druett’s lively and salty chronicle, which is as fresh as a sea breeze, brings to life a bygone maritime era that was reigned over by a generation of stalwart men and women – for better or worse.

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GEORGE JEPSON

Review

NIGHT WOLF BY JAMES L. NELSON

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IKING RAIDS in Britain and Ireland were first recorded in the late eighth century. The monastary of Lindisfarne, on Holy Island off England’s northeast coast, was attacked by raiding ships in the summer of 793. Two years later, the Northmen invaded Ireland, unleashing a violent fury that would threaten the Emerald Isle for the next half century. Three years ago, Maine-based maritime historian and novelist James L. Nelson, whose family roots reach back to Scandinavia, went a’viking himself, with the launch of his new series, The Norsemen Saga. The first title, Fin Gall, introduced Thorgrim Ulfsson – also called the Night Wolf – who leaves his farm in Norway in AD 852, and returns to his NIGHT WOLF Viking ways to raid Fore Topsail Press, $12.99, U.S. Trade Ireland. Paperback / $3.99, Kindle Over the course of four novels – Fin Gall, Dubh-linn, The Lord of Vík-ló, and Glendalough Fair – Thorgrim and his fellow warriors battle Danish Vikings, along with Irish adversaries, in bloody skirmishes that are fought over land and treasure. There are victories and defeats, but each

comes with a high price. By the latest installment – Night Wolf – Thorgrim and his band of Northmen have been betrayed by Kevin mac Lugaed, an Irish trading partner, and Ottar Thorolfson, nicknamed Bloodax, the leader of a rival Viking army, which had been an ally. After a doomed attack on the monastary at Glendalough, the Northmen are left to defend themselves against a superior Irish army. Thorgrim’s company suffers grievous losses, leaving only the Night Wolf and ten of his men alive. The survivors have only their weapons and a damaged longship, Sea Hammer. Meanwhile, Ottar has taken the other ships and headed back to Vík-ló, the Viking longphort on Ireland’s east coast, to take control and claim the stronghold’s wealth, while leaving Thorgrim and his men to be slaughtered by the Irish. Surrounded by enemies and seriously outnumbered, Thorgrim’s immediate concern is to slip quietly down the Avonmore River to a safe place, where the longship can be repaired. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, he is driven to avenge the treachery that cost the lives of so many of his crew. Augmenting his depleted force with a gang of Irish bandits, Night Wolf and his Norsemen set off on a dangerous journey back to Vík-ló that threatens their very survival. At the end lies death for one side or the other. James L. Nelson leads readers on a compelling, fast-paced adventure across a perilous medieval Irish landscape, fraught with sinister characters and excitement that will have readers turning pages well into the wee hours.

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GEORGE JEPSON

Essay

STUNNING VICTORY William Eaton leads United States Marines “to the shores of Tripoli” BY SETH HUNTER Editor’s Note: The Flag of Freedom, the latest Nathan Peake novel, is based on the dramatic events that dragged the infant America into its first foreign intervention in the early 1800s, which evoke a disturbing comparison with more recent events in the Middle East. But the true story is as riveting as anything in the fictional tales of Nathan Peake, as author Seth Hunter discovered during his research into the first combined land and sea operation of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps on the shores of Tripoli.

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N DECEMBER 4, 1804, two small boats sailed from the Egyptian port of Rosetta carrying an assorted bunch of sailors, marines, guides and mercenaries who were about to launch one of the strangest but most heroic operations in American military and naval history. The boats flew two different flags. One was the Stars and Stripes, the other the Union Jack, which was strange

enough in itself, as the two countries had been at each other’s throats until fairly recently. They were under the command of a 40-yearold soldier and farmer’s boy from Connecticut, who had won his military spurs fighting the British during the War for Independence, and the Iroquois in Ohio before taking a post as American Consul in the North African Hunter Seth Seth Hunter port of Tunis. This is how General William Eaton described the force under his command: “Our strength consisted of Lieutenant O’Bannon of the Marine Corps with six of his Marines, Midshipmen Mann and Danielson, Mr Farquhur, an Englishman from Malta, Selim, a janissary, Ali, a dragoman with six servants, all well armed, and Captain Vincent and Doctor Mendrici in another Boat, mounting two swivels, with an equal number of men.” About right, then, for a march of 600 miles across the desert, the rescue of 308 American hostages, and a battle against 25,000 heavily armed Arab 14 | September / October 2016

Oil painting by Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) - The Peabody Art Collection

General William Eaton (1764-1818)

troops under the command of one of the most bloodthirsty but charismatic rulers in the Middle East. The events that had set this reckless adventure in train are as fascinating and bizarre as the mission itself. They began, ironically enough, with President Washington’s resolve to keep the United States free of the European rivalries and ambitions that had plunged that Continent into conflict for the best part of a millennium, and had been spread by various means to the distant corners of the globe. As a young man, Washington had seen the results of this at first hand during the French and Indian Wars, and after leading his people to victory in the Independence War against the British, he saw no reason why the new nation should not live in peace with the rest of the world – at least outside its own borders. For this reason, the United States had no Army or Navy, except for a few coastguard cutters, a regiment of soldiers on the frontier, and a battery of artillery to guard West Point. Washington’s view was that the new nation should look westward for its future prosperity, and turn its back on the warring and mercenary tribes across the Atlantic. But this was not a view shared by the mer-

chants and bankers of the Atlantic Seaboard. They had grown rich on the profits of overseas trade. Many of them had remained loyal to King George during the War for Independence, and they had every intention of continuing business as usual under the flag of the United States. However, one of the most profitable areas of trade happened to be in one of the most dangerous places on earth – at least for the Americans. The whole of North Africa, from Morocco through Algeria and Tunis to Tripoli (now Libya), was known to Christians as the Barbary Coast. Officially part of the Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Great Sultan in Istanbul, in reality it was governed by local Islamic chieftains or Pashas who considered themselves to be in a state of permanent war with all non-believers. This war was pursued mainly by a fleet of pirates known as the Barbary Corsairs, who raided the coastal areas of Europe and attacked any Christian vessel unable to defend itself, seizing the ship and its cargo as plunder and selling the passengers and crew in the slave markets of North Africa. Most of the male prisoners pulled oar in the galleys, or worked in chain gangs building harbors and defenses, while the women were employed as servants in private houses and harems. Such was the fear of these predators, that the smaller European countries negotiated a series of treaties, guaranteeing their ships safe conduct in return for an annual tribute. Those countries with a powerful enough Navy, such as Great Britain, France and Spain, threatened such dire consequences their ships were generally spared attack. But of course, the United States had no Navy. In order to protect its commerce, Congress was forced to pay the agreed tribute. But it didn’t always work. Knowing that the Americans had no means of redress, the Corsairs constantly flouted the agreement and the Pashas asked for more money. American ships were captured, their cargoes plundered, and their crews held for ransom or sold into slavery. At the same time the British resorted to their own form of piracy by boarding American ships, ostensibly in search of “deserters,” and pressing their crews into service with the Royal Navy. Meanwhile, the French, not to be left out, accused the Americans of trading with the enemy and seized their ships in reprisal. Something had to be done.

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16 | September / October 2016

Oil painting by Edward Moran (1829-1901) - United States Naval Academy Collection

So on March 27, 1794, a reluctant and frugal House of Representatives agreed by a margin of two votes to build six frigates at a combined cost of $688,888.82. And the U.S. Navy began its long and glorious history. To put this in perspective, the British Navy, at that time, possessed no fewer than 158 frigates and cruisers, and 127 ships of the line (battleships, as they were later called). But the new U.S. frigates were probably the best of their kind in the world. They were long of keel and narrow of beam, designed to be fast enough to outrun a battleship, but stout enough and heavily armed enough to outgun any frigate or cruiser. The most powerful of them, Bostonbuilt USS Constitution, was armed with 44 long guns capable of firing a 24-pound shot. The Barbary Corsairs had nothing to approach her. Their most powerful vessel was the captured Boston brigantine Betsey, which had been renamed the Meshuda and was armed with 28 small cannon. She was commanded by a redbearded Scotsman called Peter Lisle, a former deckhand, who had converted to Islam under the name Murad Rais and become Admiral of the Tripolitan Fleet. Backed by the threat of force, U.S. diplomats agreed to new terms with the rulers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunis, paying a reduced tribute to protect their commerce from attack. But the PaBurning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli sha of Tripoli held out for more money. When USS Philadelphia, previously captured by the Tripolitans, ablaze after she was boarded by Stephen Decatur and 60 men and set afire, making their President Jefferson refused to pay, he declared escape in the ketch Intrepid, in the foreground. war by the traditional method of cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate. Jefferson promptly sent three of his new frigates, with a Pasha, who invited them to a celebration and watched handful of smaller sloops and gunboats, to blockade the them demonstrate the latest western dance steps. port of Tripoli. The ordinary seamen were led a different kind of While pursuing one of the corsairs, the frigate Philadance. They were stripped naked, given rags to wear, delphia ran aground on an uncharted reef. Pounded by led through the streets in chains and lodged in an old enemy gunboats under the command of Murad Rais storehouse where they were fed the daily ration of a and unable to fire back, Captain William Bainbridge slave – two small loaves of bread and a portion of olive was forced to surrender. The frigate was refloated by the oil. enemy, and he and his entire crew of 308 officers and It was a major blow to U.S. prestige. It could also men taken off as prisoners. prove costly. Now under the command of Murad Rais, The officers appear to have been well-treated. They the 38-gun frigate would be a serious menace to every were accommodated in the house of the former AmeriAmerican ship in the region, and the triumphant Pasha can Consul and were even welcomed personally by the demanded an enormous ransom to free the captured

seamen. In desperation, the U.S. squadron began to bombard the port. The Pasha upped the ante. The captured officers were locked in the castle dungeons, and the emaciated, half-naked American seamen were forced to repair the damage, while their brutal overseers flogged and beat them for slacking. Five of them died in captivity, while six converted to Islam and became renegades. However, the captured officers managed to smuggle plans of the harbor defences to the blockading squadron, and a young American lieutenant called Stephen Decatur proposed a daring plan to burn the Philadelphia at its moorings, right under the guns of the enemy fortress. On the night of January 16, 1802, Lieutenant Decatur, with a scratch crew of fifty seamen and eight marines, sailed a captured enemy ketch, renamed the Intrepid, into Tripoli harbur. Flying a Maltese flag, with his officers in Maltese dress, and the rest of the crew hidden below deck, Decatur brought the ketch right alongside the captured frigate. As the two vessels ground together, a suspicious guard raised the alarm and cries of “Americanos” rang out across the harbor. Decatur immediately gave the order to board. No firearms were used and in virtual silence a score or so of the enemy were killed by cutlass and dirk before the rest took to boats. Explosives were swiftly planted, the fuses lit, and the boarders beat a hasty retreat. Moments later, the captured frigate burst into flames. Blazing from stem to stern, her loaded guns firing a ghostly broadside, she drifted ashore and blew up. This removed a major threat to American commerce, but the hostages were still in enemy hands, naval operations had clearly failed to shake the Pasha’s resolve, and his ransom demand increased to a massive half a million dollars (five per cent of the annual U.S. Budget). Back in Washington, Congress was in uproar. Enter William Eaton, who had served for a time as American Consul in Tunis, the next province along from Tripoli. Exiled for political intrigue, he had returned to Washington where he put forward an ambitious plan to replace the troublesome Pasha with his brother Ahmed. There was some legal justification for this. The Pasha – Yusuf Karamanli – was the youngest of the three sons of the previous ruler. He had seized power by murder-

ing his older brother in the sanctity of their mother’s harem, and the middle brother, Ahmed, had promptly fled to Tunis where he had met Consul Eaton. Eaton now informed his contacts in the State Department that Ahmed had a lot of support in Tripoli, and that, with a small force of soldiers, he could be installed as the rightful Pasha. Desperate for a breakthrough, President Jefferson agreed. So in early in March, 1805, an extraordinary cavalcade made its way along the camel track – now the International Coast Road – between Alexandria and Tripoli. It was led by Captain William Eaton in full military regalia. Behind him came a Marine subaltern, two naval midshipmen, a warrant officer and a file of six Marines, marching with muskets. Then came a company of 25 English, French and Levantine gunners, dragging a field gun and other weapons that could vaguely be classed as ordnance. They were followed by 35 Greek mercenaries, flanked by 90 Arab horsemen in the silken, embroidered robes of the Kuloghli cavalry, armed to the teeth with muskets, pistols and swords and commanded by the “rightful” Pasha of Tripoli, Ahmed Karamanli. At the rear of this column of desperadoes, led by a young English quartermaster who was almost certainly an agent of the British Prime Minister William Pitt, came a baggage train of 109 camels and their drivers, and a long line of servants and camp followers. Eaton had recruited extra support since his landing at Rosetta, but his entire force, including camel drivers, numbered no more than 400. Between him and the hostages in Tripoli lay 600 miles of desert, the fortified port of Derna, with a garrison of 800 troops loyal to Pasha Yusuf, and beyond that Tripoli itself and the Pasha’s army of 25,000 janissaries. Everything depended on the population rising up in support of the Pasha’s brother, Prince Ahmed. But there were no immediate signs of this happening. In fact, the charismatic Pasha Yusuf could count on the complete loyalty of his troops, whereas his brother Ahmed was widely regarded as a weakling and a coward. The only people to join the column as it marched on Derna were 150 Bedouin tribesmen, who were bribed by Eaton with the promise of 2,000 silver dollars and all the rice they could eat. At the end of April, 1805, this extraordinary army

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By Colonel Charles Waterhouse, U.S. Marines (Marine Corps Art Collection)

made camp above the port of Derna, defended by the Governor’s 800 janissaries, a battery of eight 9-pounder cannon, and a 10-inch howitzer mounted on the palace roof. Astonishingly, the optimistic Eaton invited the Governor to surrender, appealing to him as “a man of liberal mind” to support the “rightful heir.” Back came the brief reply: “My head or yours, Mustafa.” Fortunately, within a few hours of receiving this discouraging response, Eaton was considerably cheered by Attack on Derna the arrival of the USS NauLieutenant Presley O'Bannon leads United States Marines at Derna, April 1805. tilus, a 12-gun schooner commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry. It got even better. At dawn the next day, ramparts. the brigs Argus and Hornet appeared, each armed with One Marine had been killed and two wounded. 16 heavy carronades and a number of long 18-pounder Eaton himself had been shot through the wrist, and cannon. there were 11 more casualties among the irregulars. But Eaton held talks with the three naval commanders, for the next six weeks, the diminished force, supported and they agreed on a combined attack by land and sea. by the ships in the Bay, held off numerous attacks by Argus landed two of her long guns for the land assault, the Pasha’s janissaries. before drawing off into the Bay of Derma and poundThen, on June 11, the frigate Constellation arrived ing the fort of Bou Mansour with her 24-pounder carfrom Malta with dramatic news. A peace treaty had ronades. The two other sloops, meanwhile, came close been signed between Tripoli and the U.S. Government, inshore and swept the Governor’s batteries on the Mata- and the American hostages were to be released. But in riz Peninsular with a hail of round and grape shot. The return, Eaton was to evacuate Derna and take Prince batteries fell silent, and the town defences began to Ahmed with him. crumble. So that same evening, the Arab prince and his MameBut then Eaton’s scouts reported that a relief column lukes, the Greek, French and English mercenaries, and of the Pasha’s janissaries was within a few hours’ march the handful of surviving Marines were embarked in the of the beleaguered port. Eaton had to act fast if he was Constellation, leaving the rest of Ahmed’s supporters to not to be caught between a rock and a hard place. flee into the night. Prince Ahmed and his Arab cavalry were sent to delay “We drop them into the hands of the enemy,” wrote the advancing troops, while Lieutenant Presley a despondent William Eaton, “for no other crime than O’Bannon, his six Marines, 25 gunners, and 36 Greek too much confidence in us.” Sadly, he would not be the mercenaries launched a direct attack on the town walls. last American special agent to feel that way, but he Outnumbered ten-to-one, they were driven back by a would be remembered in the United States as the leader hail of musket fire from the loopholes, but then Eaton of a heroic mission against overwhelming odds, and as came up with a small band of Arab irregulars and by the man who led the Marine Corps to its first stunning four o’clock the Stars and Stripes had been raised on the victory on “the shores of Tripoli.”

Sea Fiction

September

September

1- The Time of Terror

2- The Tide of War

by Seth Hunter

by Seth Hunter

(McBooks Press, $19.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) In the Time of Terror, friends turn against friends, patriots are betrayed, and lovers must pay the ultimate price. 1793 . . . British navy Commander Nathan Peake patrols the English coast, looking for smugglers. Desperate for some real action, Peake gets his chance when France declares war on England and descends into the bloody madness of the Terror. Peake is entrusted with a mission to wreck the French economy by smuggling fake banknotes into Paris. His activities take him down Paris streets patrolled by violent mobs and into the sinister catacombs beneath the French capital. As opposition to the Terror mounts, Peake fights to carry out his mission – and to save the life of the woman he loves.

(McBooks Press, $19.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) When the tide of war is on the rise, telling friend from foe is a dangerous proposition. It’s 1794, and newly promoted Captain Nathan Peake is dispatched to the Caribbean to take command of the British navy’s latest frigate, the 32-gun Unicorn, a ship with a tragic history of mutiny and murder. Indeed, her previous captain was found washed up in New Orleans with his throat cut, and the men who did it are still at large. But Peake has greater problems to deal with: he must find the French war ship Virginie – sent to the region to spread war, rebellion and mayhem – and stop her at any cost. Along the way, he confronts the seductive charms of La Princesa Negra, the witch queen of the Army of Lucumi.

19 | September / October 2016

Sea Fiction

October

September

3- The Price of Glory

Death’s Bright Angel

by Seth Hunter

by J. D. Davies

(McBooks Press, $19.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) Captain Nathan Peake’s adventures continue as he charts a perilous course into the dangerous waters of post-Revolutionary Paris. There, he encounters two of the most beautiful and scandalous courtesans in history and their playmate, laughingly dubbed Captain Cannon, who is about to win enduring fame as Napoleon Bonaparte. Back at the helm of the Unicorn, Peake joins Captain Horatio Nelson, another young glory-seeker, in a bid to wreck Bonaparte’s plans for the invasion of Italy. Amidst the chaos of war, Peake has his own private agenda to find his lost love, but as the fighting spreads from the mountains to the sea, he discovers that glory comes at a higher price than he originally thought.

(Old Street Publishing, $8.93, UK Paperback) In September 1666, one word was on everyone’s lips. Fire. But not all attention was on the blaze that destroyed London. Just three weeks earlier, British ships had obliterated the Dutch town of Westerschelling and set 150 merchant vessels ablaze. In an atmosphere thick with rumor, many thought the Great Fire of London was caused by Britain's enemies, perhaps in revenge for Westerschelling. Perhaps they were right. In the weeks before London's burning, Sir Matthew Quinton, master of HMS Sceptre, is recalled to a city seething with foreign plots and paranoia, and given a dangerous mission by the King. A secret quartet of terrorists is planning to destroy the capital, stir rebellion, open the way for invasion. Only Quinton can stop them. Weaving together historical fact with a fast-paced thriller, Death’s Bright Angel concludes with the author’s own, incendiary revelations about the Great Fire and those who’d prefer the truth to lie forgotten among the ashes.

20 | September / October 2016

Sea Fiction

Nicholas Everard Novels BY ALEXANDER FULLERTON

W

orld War II action and suspense abound as Nicholas Everard, his half-brother Jack, and his son Paul fight the Nazi menace on land and sea. From the frozen North Atlantic to the shark-infested waters of the South Seas, the Everards must dodge German wolf-packs, Stukka dive bombers and Japanese patrols to beat the Axis at their own game. 1 - STORM FORCE TO NARVIK

3 - ALL THE DROWNING SEAS

5 - THE TORCH BEARERS

(McBooks Press, $20.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) Nick Everard, in a crippled destroyer, joins forces with his son and the Allied flotilla, as all converge off of Norway in a deadly Arctic battle.

(McBooks Press, $21.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) 1942 . . . The Japanese sweep across the Pacific, and Nicholas Everard, commander of the cruiser Defiant, seems doomed. His escape routes are blocked. Can he avoid being trapped?

(McBooks Press, $23.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) 1942: Nick Everard, aboard the Harbinger, escorts a slow convoy through ferocious U-boat packs. Meanwhile, in Sicily, Paul is part of risky Allied machinations, while Jack is a fugitive POW.

4 - A SHARE OF HONOUR

6 - A SHARE OF HONOUR

(McBooks Press, $21.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $9.49, Kindle and NOOK) In the central Mediterranean, Paul Everard in the submarine Ultra is concerned about fighting Germans, and his father Nick is captain of a cruiser in the Pacific where Japanese naval superiority reigns.

(McBooks Press, $22.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $9.49, Kindle and NOOK) Paul commands a midget sub, sent on a suicide mission to lay explosives on a German destroyer. Meanwhile, Nick’s escort of an Arctic convoy goes terribly wrong.

2 - LAST LIFT FROM CRETE (McBooks Press, $20.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) Everard finds himself at the mercy of the German bombers. Carnarvon sinks with his son on board. Back in Alexandria, Nick must lift an Australian medical unit out from under German noses.

McBooks Press offers all titles on its website at 30% off list prices: www.mcbooks.com. 21 | September / October 2016

Historical Fiction

Available Now

Available Now

The Mystery of Tunnel 51

The Devil’s Cocktail

by Alexander Wilson

by Alexander Wilson

(Allison & Busby, $16.95, UK Paperback / $0.99, Kindle / $3.99, NOOK) This is the first title in the Wallace of the Secret Service British thrillers by Alexander Wilson. Chief of the Intelligence Department Sir Leonard Wallace – bearing always the hall mark of coolness and wit – is up to his earlobes in trouble. Summoned by the Viceroy of India, he makes a rapid flight to India to investigate the mysterious death of British officer Major Elliot and the theft of some very important dispatches.

(Allison & Busby, $16.95, UK Paperback / $5.61, Kindle / $9.49, NOOK) This is book two in the Wallace of the Secret Service series. Sir Leonard is not a man to desire fame or notoriety. His chronicler has been forced to fall back on office records and information supplied by various members of the secret service, to tell of the struggles of Wallace and his intelligence officers – their battles against the Soviet Union, terrorism subversion in the British Empire, Nazi Germany and the tentacles of global organized crime.

Alexander Wilson was a popular and highly acclaimed British author of the 1920s and 1930s. His characters are based on his own fascinating and largely unknown career in the secret service. Alexander Wilson’s Website: alexanderwilsonauthorandspy.com

22 | September / October 2016

Historical Fiction

October

Available Now

Arizona Moon

Appointment with Venus

by J. M. Graham

by Jerrard Tickell

(Naval Institute Press, $29.95, U.S. Hardback) In 1967, the infamous Arizona Territory of Vietnam’s An Hoa basin was a crucible that forged the souls of men. Through the booby-trapped trails of one of the conflict’s most hotly contested free-fire zones, thousands of Vietnamese and Americans fought and died while others learned what it means to finally live. Arizona Moon binds together the fates of three men who went to war to find meaning, but found only Vietnam. Corporal Raymond Strader is a Marine Corps squad leader and designated platoon sniper who is counting down the days before he can return to Pennsylvania. Lance Corporal Noche Gonshayee is an Apache Indian feared by his fellow Marines and who sees any non-Apache as a potential enemy. Truong Nghi is a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) student volunteer caught up in patriotic fervor and helping an NVA unit move munitions south in anticipation of the Tet Offensive.

(Endeavour Press, $3.99, Kindle) In 1940, after the fall of France, the fictitious Channel Island of Armorel is occupied by a small garrison of German troops under the benign command of Hauptmann Weiss. He finds that the hereditary ruler, the Suzerain, is away in the army, leaving the Provost in charge. Back in London, the Ministry of Agriculture realizes that during the evacuation of the island, Venus, a prize pedigree cow, has been left behind. They petition the War Office to do something urgently, and Major Morland is assigned the task of rescuing Venus. When he realizes that the Suzerain’s sister, Nicola Fallaize, is in Wales, serving as an army cook, she is quickly posted to the War Office and the two, with a sergeant and a naval officer, are landed on the island.

23 | September / October 2016

Naval History

September

October

Pearl Harbor

The Fleet at Flood Tide

by Craig Nelson

by James D. Hornfischer

(Harper, $32.00, U.S. Hardback / $16.99, Kindle and NOOK) Published in time for the 75th anniversary, a gripping and definitive account of the event that changed twentieth-century America – Pearl Harbor – based on years of research and recently uncovered information. The America we live in today was born, not on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when an armada of 354 Japanese warplanes supported by aircraft carriers, destroyers, and midget submarines suddenly and savagely attacked the United States, killing 2,403 men – and forced America’s entry into World War II. Nelson follows, moment by moment, the sailors, soldiers, pilots, diplomats, admirals, generals, emperor, and president as they engineer, fight, and react to this stunningly dramatic moment in world history. Beginning in 1914, bestselling author Craig Nelson maps the road to war, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, attending the laying of the keel of the USS Arizona at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

(Harper, $35.00, U.S. Hardback / $14.99, Kindle and NOOK) Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts by Americans and Japanese alike, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a thrilling narrative of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War, focusing on the U.S. invasion of the Mariana Islands in June 1944 and the momentous events that it produced. With its thunderous assault into Japan’s inner defensive perimeter, America crossed the threshold of total war. From the seaborne invasion of Saipan to the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, from the largest banzai attack of the war to the first mass suicides of Japanese civilians to the strategic bombing effort that culminated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas became the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender. These events had consequences that forever changed modern war. Hornfischer casts this clash of nations and cultures with cinematic scope and penetrating insight.

24 | September / October 2016

Biography

Available Now

Available Now

Admiral Bill Halsey

MacArthur at War

by Thomas Alexander Hughes

by Walter R. Borneman

(Harvard University Press, $35.00, U.S. Hardback / $19.25, Kindle / $20.49, NOOK) William Halsey was the most famous naval officer of World War II. His fearlessness in carrier raids against Japan, his steely resolve at Guadalcanal, and his impulsive blunder at the Battle of Leyte Gulf made him the “Patton of the Pacific” and solidified his reputation as a decisive, aggressive fighter prone to impetuous errors of judgment in the heat of battle. In this definitive biography, Thomas Hughes punctures the popular caricature of the “fighting admiral” to reveal the truth of Halsey’s personal and professional life as it was lived in times of war and peace. Halsey committed himself wholeheartedly to naval life at an early age. An audacious and inspiring commander to his men, he met the operational challenges of the battle at sea against Japan with dramatically effective carrier strikes early in the war. Yet his greatest contribution to the Allied victory was as commander of the combined sea, air, and land forces in the South Pacific .

(Little Brown, $30.00, U.S. Hardback / $15.99, Kindle and NOOK) This is the definitive account of General Douglas MacArthur’s rise during World War II, from the author of the bestseller The Admirals. World War II changed the course of history. Douglas MacArthur changed the course of World War II. MacArthur at War goes deeper into this period of his life than previous biographies, drilling into the military strategy that Walter R. Borneman is so skilled at conveying, and exploring how personality and ego translate into military successes and failures. Architect of stunning triumphs and inexplicable defeats, General MacArthur is the most intriguing military leader of the twentieth century. There was never any middle ground with MacArthur. This in depth study of the most critical period of his career shows how MacArthur’s influence spread far beyond the war-torn Pacific.

25 | September / October 2016

Photo by George Jepson.

By George!

Photo by Amy Jepson.

Left: The author with Alexander Fullerton in the novelist’s study in May 2001. Above: Priscilla and Sandy Fullerton.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

spect, admittedly, but still there – in sepia, you might say.” These memories later turned up in his novels set around the Great War. Among them were Stark Realities and Flight to Mons. At the time of our visit, Sandy was finishing the manuscript for Single to Paris, the final title in his four-book Rosie Ewing series about a young English woman, who risks her life behind German lines in France during World War II as a Special Operations Executive agent and radio operator. The Rosie stories had immediately captured my imagination. I asked Sandy how he selected Rosie’s name. “In this case,” he replied, “I simply like the name Rosie. It has a certain warmth about it, I think. Her real name, incidentally, is Rosalie de Bosque. It’s also a name which Somerset Maugham used very successfully in what I think is his best novel, Cakes and Ale. Rosie [also] may have some of my wife, who is English, in her.” Our conversation continued over a tasty ploughman’s

lunch – meats, cheeses and breads – which we washed down with wine in the Fullerton’s dining room. Later, Sandy showed us his second-floor study, which had a spacious panoramic view of the South Downs. By late afternoon, it was time for us to leave to catch our train back to London, carrying wonderful memories of our visit to Beechland Lodge. Over the next seven years, we continued our correspondence, eventually turning from letters to emails. And we did return to the cottage one more time during another English holiday. In 2007, I received a letter from Sandy. Reading his words, my heart sank. He had been diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer. Typical of this gentle man, he said that he accepted what was to come and that he hoped to finish the manuscript for Submarine, which would be his fiftieth and final novel. A few months later, a letter from Priscilla notified us that our friend had passed. It’s been nearly a decade since Sandy left us, and in that time we’ve lost contact with Priscilla. Beechland Lodge was recently on offer from a Newick real estate agent. Time moves inexorably forward, but Sandy and Priscilla will always

26 | September / October 2016