Kirjahaku

Behind the scenes of Napoleon's threatened invasion of England, a war of wits known as The Great Terror. In 1801, as Napoleon's Grande Armee faced an army of English volunteers across the Channel, a secret war of espionage and subversion was being fought by shadowy men with little-known names. New weaponsrockets, submarines, and torpedoeswere being developed in France by the American inventor Robert Fulton. Even during the lull of the Peace of Amiens, when English tourists flocked to Paris, the secret war continued. Drawing on diaries, letters, and newspapers, Tom Pocock provides a wonderful picture of the years 1801-5, and of the people caught up in these unique events: Nelson blockading the French at sea for two years while his beloved Emma Hamilton waited at home; Jane Austen and her naval brothers; the admirals, generals, and politicians on both sides; and perhaps most interesting of all, those lesser-known men such as Congreve, Moreau, and Pichegru, who were responsible for a new kind of warfare. 16 pages of b/w illustrations.

Alan Moorehead was lionised as a literary man of action: the most famous war correspondent of the Second World War; Drawing on Moorehead's diaries and correspondence, as well as interviews with his family and friends, Tom Pocock tells the story of a thrilling, but ultimately tragic, life.

Frederick Marryat was England's most famous author in the years between Jane Austen and Charles Dickens; even more than that he was a naval hero of the Napoleonic Wars and it was his exploits in the Royal Navy during those years that formed the core of his writing. Marryat's whole life was as fantastic as anything in his books. Biographer Tom Pocock chronicles Marryat's extraordinary life with appropriate zest, leaving the modern reader to ponder on the immoderation and versatility of lives in a more uncertain age.

Runner-up for the Whitbread Biography Award of 1987.This is the story of the man who saved Britain from invasion and gave it maritime supremacy.Juxtaposing details of his daily life, loves, friendships and opinions with the great events which make him one of the most memorable figures in British history, Horatio Nelson gives us the admiral in all of his flawed and brilliant humanity.Written with obvious authority, it takes us through his life from birth to death, not only with a wealth of new research, but also with a richness of quotation from contemporary letters and papers which provide dramatic details.Horatio Nelson should have as much appeal to the general reader as to those with a knowledge of the naval history of the times.

The true story of the first major global conflict...The first world war was not that which began in 1914, but the so-called Seven Years War which, in 1756, brought into being global conflict.The new factor which dramatically altered the course of history was British sea power. With the support of the navy, a few thousand men dispossessed the French of their fledgling North American empire and saw them, and the Dutch, utterly vanquished in India. Attacks on Cuba and the Philippines crippled the Spanish Empire. Through feats of extraordinary courage and endurance, fighting merchant adventurers such as Robert Clive laid the foundations of an Indian empire. In North America, soldiers such as the Virginia militia officer George Washington, the future first President of the United States, and James Wolfe, who died in the battle for Quebec, determined that the continent would be British - not French.In this vivid account of this first 'modern' war, Tom Pocock uses the testimony of eyewitnesses to dramatic effect. Praise for Tom Pocock: 'Pocock's book makes enthralling reading... his prose is excellent' - Nigel Nicolson, The Spectator'The lessons of history are brought to life by Tom Pocock and his latest book is a thoroughly good read' - The Times'Tom Pocock has caught the flavour of this age. He is a first-rate story-teller, writing with an appropriate gusto about his robust heroes' - Lawrence James, Evening StandardTom Pocock is the author of 18 books (and editor of two more), including two about his experiences as a newspaper war correspondent.