Persephone (HC/K)

Author Julian Stockwin’s new novel, Persephone, will be released in hardcover and kindle and audio formats worldwide on 18 May 2017. It is now available for pre-order.

November 1807. Captain Sir Thomas Kydd must sail to Lisbon to aid the Portuguese Royal Family’s evacuation in the face of Napoleon’s ruthless advance through Iberia. In the chaos of the threatened city an old passion is reawakened when he meets Persephone Lockwood, a beautiful and determined admiral’s daughter from his past.But the Royal Family’s destination is Brazil, Perspehone’s England, and it seems Kydd’s chance has gone again. Only later he discovers Persephone has another suitor – and that, if he wants to win her hand, he must enter the highest echelons of London society.Mixing with aristocracy and royalty brings other responsibilities. The Prince of Wales asks him to take temporary command of the Royal Yacht. Sailing to Yarmouth, Kydd realises they are being stalked by French privateers. The terrible threat of a prince of the blood being captured sees Kydd call on daring seamanship of the highest order.

Source: Persephone (HC/K)

Re-release to Mark 350th Anniversary of Dutch in the Medway

This year sees the 350th anniversary of the Dutch attack on the Medway in June 1667 during the Second anglo-Dutch war. A number of events are planned to mark this anniversary. Also a book first published in 1970, The Dutch in the Medway by P. G. Rogers, is to be re-released and as few original copies are available this will be the first chance many who want to know more about this conflict will have to read it.

According to J. D. Davies, author of The Journals of Matthew Quinton, an expert on the navies of the period who is writing a foreword for the new edition “….. his account remains the fullest available in English, and is highly readable”. It is available for pre-order and will be released in the UK on 28 February and in the US on 15 April.

To quote the cover “The daring raid on the Medway in June 1667, when the Dutch navigated the treacherous shoals and sandbanks of the Thames estuary and the Medway in order to attack King Charles’s ships laid up below Chatham, was one of the worst defeats in the Royal Navy’s history, and a serious blow to the pride of the English crown. Perhaps the greatest humiliation was the removal by the Dutch of the flagship Royal Charles, towed down river after the raid and taken back to Holland. Her stern piece resides in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to this day. The raid, intended to bring to an end English procrastination at the peace negotiations in Breda, was to cause simmering resentment and lead eventually to the Third Dutch War. As Pepys wrote in his diary on 29 July 1667, Thus in all things, in wisdom, courage, force, knowledge of our own streams, and success, the Dutch have the best of us, and do end the war with victory on their side. P G Rogers account of the raid, and its significance within the Second Anglo-Dutch War between Britain and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, is vividly told and he sheds much interesting light on the English navy of Pepys’s day. His particular knowledge of the Medway and the topography of Gillingham and Chatham also enables him to describe the manoeuvres at a level of detail that has not been replicated.”

Source: Re-release to Mark 350th Anniversary of Dutch in the Medway

Pirates: Truth and Tale (HC)

Helen Hollick has a new non-fiction book available for pre-order, Pirates: Truth and Tale. It will be released in hardcover in the UK on 15 February 2017 and in the US on 1 May 2017.

The historian R. H. Tawney famously wrote, ‘The sixteenth century lives in terror of the tramp.’ The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since.It was a harsh life for those who went ‘on the account’, constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangman’s noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some to be worth the risk. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgan, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he was known as ‘The Exterminator’.The fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy?

Source: Pirates: Truth and Tale (HC)

Privateer(PB)

David O’Neil recently released a new novel, Privateer. It is available worldwide in Paperback.

Sailing as a privateer under a Letter of Marque provided by the Governor of Jamaica, Robert Shaw recruits a crew of fearless sailors, mostly ex-navy, to attack and seize vessels of enemy nations. Success of such efforts can be rewarding with riches untold. Failure can bring death by hanging or worse. Robert and his crew are determined to succeed and along the way comes opportunities to rescue ladies in distress, slaves in bondage, and governments under siege. As Robert’s small navy continues to expand, so do the opportunities and so does the danger.From the pen of author David O’Neill, frequently compared to noted authors W.E.B. Griffin, Douglas Reeman and Robert Ludlum comes a fascinating saga of sea warfare, piracy, treasures, battles, romance and hand-to-hand fighting as Robert and his men are solicited by the Royal Navy to clean the seas of marauding pirates and treacherous government officials.

Source: Privateer(PB)