In the Hour of Victory: The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson

Willis (The Fighting Temerarie), one of the world’s most prolific maritime historians, delivers an authoritative and insightful account of the British Navy at the height of its power, 1794–1806—or which Willis aptly calls “a veritable golden age of British naval success.” The book’s central point of interest is the collection of letters Willis miraculously found stowed away in the dank and dusty corners of the British Library. In these forgotten dispatches are the first reports sent home recounting in detail Britain’s most famous battles at sea—The Glorious First of June, Nelson’s victories at the Nile and Trafalgar, and other “significant naval battles of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.” Willis not only includes full transcripts—with occasional photos of the original letters—but also offers an outline of battles at the outset of each chapter, summaries of the letters’ contents (some of which prove challenging), and insightful analysis. This elucidating history will be especially of interest to passionate enthusiasts, but certainly accessible and intriguing to the general reader. Illus. Agent: Georgina Capel, Capel & Land (U.K.). (Apr.)