H.M.S. Cockerel
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4.0 • 20 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Our favourite rakish sailor, Alan Lewrie, returns in this thrilling historical naval adventure.
It is 1793, and Alan Lewrie, swashbuckling naval warrior turned family man, longs for battle. Oppressed by life as a gentleman farmer, when revolutionary France draws Britain into war, Lewrie is only too pleased to answer the navy’s call.
But life aboard the H.M.S Cockerel is marred by a malaria-stricken tyrant of a captain and a restless crew. When the war escalates Lewrie finds himself at the Battle of Toulon where he meets a dashing young Napoleon Bonaparte. Outnumbered three to one, Lewrie takes on the French in a desperate bid to help the Royalists escape…
H.M.S Cockerel, book six in The Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures is perfect for fans of Patrick O’Brian, Iain Gale and George MacDonald Fraser.
Praise for Dewey Lambdin
‘You could get addicted to this series. Easily.’ New York Times Book Review
‘The best naval series since C. S. Forester . . . Recommended.’ Library Journal
‘Fast-moving. . . A hugely likeable hero, a huge cast of sharply drawn supporting characters: there's nothing missing. Wonderful stuff.’ Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As in the five earlier novels chronicling the adventures of 18th-century British naval lieutenant Alan Lewrie (The Gun Ketch, etc.), Lambdin here serves up a fast-moving yarn loaded with action, colorful characters and marvelous period detail. In 1792, war clouds from France threaten to spread the storm of the Revolution across Europe, prompting the Admiralty to recall Lewrie from his comfortable life as a gentleman farmer in Surrey. After a brief stint in charge of a press-gang rounding up ``deserters,'' Alan is named first officer of the frigate Cockerel. The burden of serving under the neurotic, overbearing Captain Braxton is eased somewhat by an excursion to Naples, where Alan meets, and forgets his marriage vows, with the lusty Lady Emma Hamilton. Later, Alan is assigned to shore duty at Toulon, where a pocket of Royalists is under siege by Revolutionaries. There, the lieutenant encounters then-Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte and, after the city's evacuation, manages, with stylish seamanship and cunning, to become something of a hero. This is Lambdin's usual satisfying brew, leavened with welcome humor-as when Lady Hamilton, at a crucial amatory moment, coos, ``I'll never in my life know... what it is... 'bout me, and sailors!''
