Peter Padfield

Peter Padfield was born in British India before the Second World War, but returned to England aged seven on the death of his father. Immediately plunged into the boarding school experience of that era, he emerged with a love of cricket and a desire to go to sea - unfortunately mutually incompatible. He served some years as an officer in the P & O line, but in 1957 gained a place in the crew of the replica pilgrim bark 'Mayflower II' on her transatlantic voyage to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where she remains to this day. It was a life-changing experience. Shortly afterwards he left the sea, married and began a writing career specialising in maritime and naval history, extended later to biographies of Nazi leaders. In 2003 he was awarded the Mountbatten Maritime Prize; more recently Professor James R. Holmes of the U.S. Naval War College listed his book 'Maritime Supremacy' in the all-time top ten books about the sea, an accolade he could never have imagined when he began writing.

His account of Mayflower II's voyage is The Sea is a Magic Carpet.

Age of Sail: Non-Fiction

AOS Naval Non-Fiction

Series: n/a
Year  Book  Comment
  Nelson's War Six crucial battles fought under four great admirals
  Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind Naval Campaigns That Shaped the Modern World 1588-1782
  Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom Naval Campaigns That Shaped the Modern World 1788-1857

Modern Era: Fiction

Modern Era Naval Fiction

Series: The Guy Greville Adventures
Year  Book  Comment
  The Lion's Claw Lt. Guy Greville is intelligence officer of Her Majesty’s corvette Dulcinea
  The Unquiet Gods HMS Curlew, has disappeared without trace from the Bombay station
  Gold Chains of Empire Now first lieutenant of HMS Cressida, Greville arrives in Durban
Series: n/a
Year  Book  Comment
WWI Salt and Steel The story of a family living before and during the First World War

Non-Fiction

Modern Era Naval Non-Fiction

Series: n/a
Year  Book  Comment
  Maritime Dominion and the Triumph of the Free World Naval Campaigns That Shaped the Modern World 1852-2001
  War Beneath the Sea Submarine Conflict During World War II
  Dönitz: The Last Führer The story of a personal tragedy played out within the greater tragedy of a nation.
  The Great Naval Race Anglo-German Naval Rivalry 1900-1914
  Rule Britannia The Victorian and Edwardian Navy
  Battleship Its evolution from the wooden man-of-war plated with iron armour to the steel leviathan of WWII

Modern Era Other Non-Fiction

Series: n/a
Year  Book  Comment
  The Titanic and the Californian Peter Padfield was the first to argue that the Californian was never close enough to the Titanic
  The Sea is a Magic Carpet A biographical account of some of the author's voyages

The author’s official web site is guypadfield.com/ppadfield/peterpadfield

© 2008-2024 David Hayes (Astrodene)