January 2017

Happy New Year to you all.

There was little news last month so I did not send out a newsletter and things have not really improved with only one latest release article and no books scheduled for release in January that I am aware of.

I have done some reviews which can be found below.

Brief information is given below with links to the full website articles.

This month articles have appeared about the following books:

Fiction

John Drake has just released a new book in his Jacob Fletcher series, Fletcher and the Great Raid. It is now available in paperback and for kindle download worldwide.

Each month I provide a short bio of one of the authors on the site. This month we will look at Richard Woodman

Richard Martin Woodman LVO was born and educated in London and went to sea in cargo-liners aged 16 in 1960. He became a watch-keeping officer in 1964 and in 1967 specialised in maintaining aids to navigation in specialist ships, being promoted captain in 1980. Having spent eleven years in command at sea and a further six in operational management ashore, he retired briefly in 1998. However, having sailed the Atlantic and in European waters, he is now a Board Member of Trinity House, the authority responsible for navigational safety round the coast. He remains active in that Corporation's service.

He began writing at sea and has had work published in a variety of publications. He is a correspondent for Lloyd's List, the shipping news-paper, and has written fifty books, a mixture of fiction and maritime history, winning several prizes for his work. He won the Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award in 2001 for his journalism, the Society of Nautical Research's Anderson Medal in 2005 for three major studies of convoy operations in the Second World War and the Marine Society's Thomas Gray Medal n 2010 for his five-volume history of the British Merchant Navy.

His sea-stories cover several periods, ranging from the 17th to the 20th Centuries, and ranging from home waters to the Pacific. Well reviewed, Richard Woodman's work makes full use of his understanding of the sea, ships and the men and women to be found in this distinct environment. He has written three naval fiction series.

The first series about Nathaniel Drinkwater starts at the time of the American War of Independence. The hero has a somewhat less meteoric rise through the ranks and serves in different types of vessels. We therefore get a new view of the navy.

The second about Kit Faulkner is set during the English Civil War and the Restoration. The third, the Sword of State trilogy, is about George Monck, the famous general of the sea during the Anglo/Dutch wars.

He also wrote the William Kite series, about a Privateer.

Books with a release date this month

There are no books scheduled for release this month that I am aware of. A listing of books to be released in the future is available via the Releases Calendar

Book Reviews

David Hayes reviews The Blackstrap Station by Alaric Bond

Read the Review

David Hayes reviews The Seventy-Four by M. C. Muir

Read the Review

David Hayes reviews The Sugar Revolution by Lyle Garford

Read the Review

The Normandy Privateer by David Mcdine was out in October and appears to be the first in a series about the Sea-Fencibles

Captain Cook's Merchant Ships: Freelove, Three Brothers, Mary, Friendship, Endeavour, Adventure, Resolution and Discovery by Stephen Baines was released in 2015

Do you enjoy reading the books? If so why not chat about them in the forum at: historicnavalfiction.net

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