Kirjahaku

England. 1800s. Young Lieutenant Oliver Anson has died.His family install a memorial tablet in their church to commemorate his life and service to King and country. He led the mission to capture a French privateer in a small Normandy harbour, but when it all goes wrong, Anson is felled by a musket ball in the head and is among the dead and wounded left ashore after his shipmates seek the refuge of their ship HMS Phryne.Only - and despite official newspaper reports to the contrary - the less-than-god-fearing Anson turns out not to be dead at all but very much alive, and stuns even fellow seamen with his miraculous resurrection. It is, however, far from plain sailing for the prisoners to escape from behind enemy lines and get back across the Channel... And the ambitious Anson is then dealt a hammer blow by the admiralty when he is later denied a new sea-going appointment. Instead his future is to be a land-based role, foiling any potential French invasion attempt along the Kent coastline. Perhaps worse, Anson finds himself falling into the clutches of a local bigwig's voluptuous, husband-hunting daughter.The Normandy Privateer charts the ups and downs of Lieutenant Anson and shines a poignant light on the loneliness and responsibilities of command.

Red flags flutter at the mastheads of the Channel Fleet ships gathered at the Spithead anchorage.It is 1797, across the calm waters of the Solent the great naval base of Portsmouth lies impotent. Worse, unrest is spreading - to Plymouth, backdrop to Francis Drake's Armada heroics two centuries earlier, and to the Nore, the great anchorage at the gateway to London.To the downtrodden sailors whose pay has not been increased for a hundred years and who endure a poor diet, harsh punishments and lack of shore leave, it is time to strike for better pay and conditions. But, according to the rigid Articles of War, akin to holy writ on board His Majesty's ships, it is mutiny. And at a time when Britain is at war with Revolutionary France and threatened with invasion, the nation is plunged into grave peril.Young Lieutenant Oliver Anson, a distant relative of the legendary circumnavigator Admiral George Anson, is keenly awaiting transfer to duties aboard a frigate in the Mediterranean. Any ideas of idleness while he waits are swept aside when he is ordered to travel to Portsmouth on a mysterious mission. What are the contents of the papers he is to deliver personally to the flag officer there? Who among his fellow travellers on the express Royal Mail coach would try to steal them? How does he survive a more dangerous attack after being despatched to the Nore on a further secret assignment?Strike the Red Flag skilfully uses actual events in the Royal Navy's history as the backdrop to some great swashbuckling fiction which remains true to social history while examining the idea of duty and the loneliness of command. His knowledge and evocation of the period is impressive, and his pitch-perfect phrasing recreates a fascinating world now lost to us.David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy. He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, of which Strike the Red Flag is a prequel.

Dead Man's Island in the rain was as God-forsaken a place as you could find anywhere on earth.Following his escape from France, Lieutenant Oliver Anson is appointed by Commodore Home Popham to command the Seagate Sea Fencibles. Moreover, the commodore has implied that there may be a clandestine nature to Anson's new duties...After the successful capture of a Normandy privateer Anson is summoned to Dead Man's Island, only to find the commodore absent. Foregoing any explanation, Anson is required to witness the funeral of a Frenchman from a hulk. Hoping that Captain Matthew Wills will be able to provide some explanation, Anson is only further mystified when Wills arranges for him to visit the hulk of the officer whose funeral he has just attended. With promises that the full picture shall soon reveal itself, the lieutenant embarks once more.Dead Man's Island is the next installment of the gripping Lieutenant Oliver Anson naval series.David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy. He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, and the series prequel Strike the Red Flag.

The nineteenth century has just begun, but it has not arrived quietly.At least, not on the high seas, where Lieutenant Oliver Anson and his comrades have been fighting the Napoleonic Wars. A tenuous peace finds them enjoying some respite. And for Oliver, there are matters of the heart to be resolved back at home.But nobody is taking anything for granted. Which is how Anson and his friends, including the rakish French aristocrat Hurel, find themselves undertaking clandestine work in France, just as the peace begins to falter and the threat level rapidly rises.A Stormy Peace is a meticulously-researched and highly engaging book. A must-read for fans of naval and maritime stories.David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy. He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, of which Strike the Red Flag is a prequel.