H.M.S. Surprise

‘a likeable set of youngsters ... the scrubbed, staid example of their elders could not repress their cheerfulness’

Jack Aubrey is back in England and bankrupt. His only escape is to board H.M.S. Surprise as part of a naval entourage accompanying the king’s ambassador to the East Indies. Braving storms and predatory French squadrons, Aubrey and Maturin eventually fight their way to India where they encounter a host of new threats and uncertainties. Set within this new exotic panorama, H.M.S. Surprise balances moments of high drama with compelling depictions of human courage. The nuances of life in Nelson’s navy have never been more accurately evoked.

Also available:

Master and Commander

Post Captain

The Mauritius Command

Desolation Island

The Fortune of War

The Surgeon's Mate

The Ionian Mission

Treason's Harbour

The Far Side of the World

The Reverse of the Medal

The Letter of Marque

The Thirteen Gun Salute

The Nutmeg of Consolation

Clarissa Oakes

The Wine-Dark Sea

The Commodore

The Yellow Admiral

The Hundred Days

Blue at the Mizzen

In 1991, an article appeared in The New York Times entitled ‘An Author I’d Walk the Plank For’. Like millions of readers around the world, the writer, Richard Snow, had become addicted to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey–Maturin series. Set against the sprawling canvas of the Napoleonic Wars, O’Brian’s naval adventure novels evoke this period in history like no others. Their success is down to the vim and vigour of O’Brian’s prose, his extraordinary eye for period detail and his ear for language. In Snow’s words: ‘O’Brian summoned up with casual omniscience the workaday magic of a vanished time.’

Aubrey and Maturin: The Bond of Friendship

The partnership between Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin is at the heart of Patrick O’Brian’s masterful series. Beyond the beautifully textured period setting and the thrilling skirmishes and naval battles (many based on real events), the popularity of the novels stems from these two engaging, intriguing protagonists, with Aubrey’s passionate nature providing a marvellous foil for Maturin’s more enigmatic character. Two centuries may separate us from them, but O’Brian creates an utterly compelling portrait of two men and a world at war.