Details: By: Brian Lavery; AOS Naval Non-Fiction - General

The best single-volume work to cover the vast and complex senior service as a whole. The book is divided into fourteen thematic sections which deal with the design and construction of ships; with the Navy's central and local administration; with the training and organisation of officers, seamen and marines; with ship administration; and with life at sea. By means of dispassionate descriptions and personal accounts the author reveals a world far removed from the popularly depicted poverty and cruelty of life in the Royal Navy.

Brian Lavery - one of the world's leading authorities on the sailing navy - has produced a book which is truly encyclopedic in its scope and at the same time eminently readable. Derived from considerable original research, "Nelson's Navy" is the first single-volume work to cover in such depth this vast and complex subject, and give a clear and authentic picture of the Senior Service as a whole. It is an important source book for the naval historian, a valuable reference work for the enthusiast, and a revelation to the general reader.