British Naval

When published in hardcover in 1997, this book was praised for providing an engrossing education not only in naval strategy and tactics, but in Victorian social attitudes and the influence of character on history. In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was behind the often-described operations of this famous 1916 battle at Jutland.

Patrick O'Brian transports you to the high seas of the Napoleonic era when the French demagogue is making a desperate attempt to control the European world. While Napoleon pursues the British across Europe, rumors fly about him forging a secret link with the forces of Islam. Soon an ominous horde of Muslim mercenaries gather.

For over three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the overwhelming forces of Spain and France. It became the longest siege in British history, and the obsession with saving Gibraltar was blamed for the loss of the American colonies in the War of Independence. Located between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, on the very edge of Europe, Gibraltar was a place of varied nationalities, languages, religions and social classes.

A fascinating foray into British military history in two volumes, told entirely in the words of those who were there: The Army Gazette and The Navy Gazette.

If you like Max Hastings and World War II naval history, then you will love this autobiography, which gives an easy-to-understand insider view of life in the Royal Navy during the war. Ronnie Turner had set his sights on a career with the Royal Navy, and like Ant Middleton, he wouldn't stop until he'd achieved his goal of having "a smack at the boche". Drawn from Ronnie's illegal war diary, this enjoyable tale of pocket battleships, torpedoed crews, and Admiral Harwood's tattoos, all sprinkled with Spike Milligan-like humor, make this a story you won't want to put down.