Listen to the Wind

The setting is the Napoleonic Wars, ten years before Trafalgar, in a time when Britain ruled the waves and men's lives were gripped by the savagery of naval warfare. Captain James Quarrie is rescued, in a daring secret mission, from a French firing squad. He then learns that he is to Captain HMS Brandesholme, a 38 gun frigate. His first task is to rescue Captain Rawlinson, along with his wife and beautiful daughter Charlotte, from the treacherous Spanish Ambassador, Alfonso de la Vega. Captain Rawlinson knows far too much about the Spanish Fleet, and although Britain is not yet at war with Spain, she soon will be. Quarrie's rescue mission is made all the more dangerous by the imposing fort that dominates the narrows at Isle de Arosa. This fast moving story, in the style of Patrick O'Brian, pauses to describe what life is like in the back streets of Portsmouth, the hardship and deprivation of life around the taverns in the late 1790's, intermingled with the heartache of Charlotte and her quest to improve the lives of Royal Navy widows.