Book description
Through the lives of three outstanding naval officers - each considered
the most brilliant commander of his generation - David Crane offers a
unique portrait of the Royal Navy at a time when it held unchallenged
dominion over the world's oceans.
Although all three died young, their careers covered virtually every
war of significance in which the navy was involved during the nineteenth
century. They fought against French and Americans, Russians, Turks,
Egyptians, Indians and Chinese, in fleet engagements and naval
bombardments, on the walls of Canton and the banks of the Mississippi,
against Malay pirates and sepoy mutineers.
As an eleven-year-old volunteer, Frank Hastings saw action at
Trafalgar, and he went on to be revered as a hero of the Greek War of
Independence. Yet, as the architect and captain of the first successful
steam warship and the champion of gunnery and total war, he unwittingly
prepared the way for much that would be bloodiest in the century ahead.
Nobody who saw him in the trenches of the Crimea would ever forget
William Peel's air of inviolable self-mastery under fire, and it was the
same in India, where he could ride through a landscape of decomposing
corpses as if it were some mythological world conjured up to try his
knightly resolve. What was it that enabled a man of his intelligence,
temperament, piety and background to fight with such brilliance in
defence of an Ottoman Empire that was repugnant to every tenet he held
most strongly?
If James Goodenough chased Glory as assiduously as Hastings and Peel
had done, it was the Glory of the next world, and not this. Throughout
his career he strove to reconcile the demands of his faith and his
profession, but when he finally met his martyrdom at the hands of the
'savages' of the Pacific islands, a shocked nation was left to face up
to the inconsistencies, hypocrisies and self-deceptions on which floated
its vision of divine election.
Combining thrilling scenes of battle with acute psychological insight,
Men of War provides a remarkable picture of the nature of courage,
command and warfare.
Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content
that appeared in the original print version. Praise for 'Scott of the Antarctic'
'Moving … a balanced and gripping account … David Crane has written a
fine biography of Scott, the flawed but timeless hero, and I read it all
with pleasure.' Guardian
'He [Crane] has freed himself from the tyranny of the card index to let
Scott live again as a man.' Daily Telegraph
'Compelling … impressive … moving'. Sunday Telegraph
'Crane's exhilarating biography avoids the excesses of either approach,
humanising the man without diminishing his epic endeavour. As the end
nears, Crane turns to the men's dignified accounts of their ordeal. It
is as Scott prophesied: no heart could remain unstirred.' Observer
'The most balanced biography yet. Like Scott's own writings, Crane's
stylish prose is a sheer pleasure.' New York Times David Crane's first
book, 'Lord Byron's Jackal' was published to great acclaim in 1998, and
his second, 'The Kindness of Sisters' published in 2002, is a
groundbreaking work of romantic biography. His most recent book for
Harper Press is the highly acclaimed 'Scott of the Antarctic' (published
2005). He lives in north-west Scotland.
