Horatio Nelson - Softcover

Pocock, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712661239 ISBN 13: 9780712661232

Publisher: Random House UK, 1994

Synopsis

This biography of Horatio Nelson juxtaposes details of his daily life, loves, friendships and opinions with the great events which make him one of the most memorable figures in British history. This is the story of the man who saved Britain from invasion and gave it maritime supremacy.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Pocock is the author of 18 books (and editor of two more), mostly biographies but including two about his experiences as a newspaper war correspondent. Born in London in 1925 - the son of the novelist and educationist Guy Pocock - he was educated at Westminster School and Cheltenham College, joining the Royal Navy in 1943. He was at sea during the invasion of Normandy and, having suffered from ill-health, returned to civilian life and in 1945 became a war correspondent at the age of 19,the youngest of the Second World War. After four years wth the Hulton Press current affairs magazine group, he moved to the Daily Mail as feature-writer and then Naval Correspondent, becoming Naval Correspondent of The Times in 1952. In 1956, he was a foreign corresponent and special writer for the Daily Express and from 1959 was on the staff of the Evening Standard,as feature writer,Defence Correspondent and war correspondent. For the last decade of his time on the Standard he was Travel Editor. He wrote his first book, NELSON AND HIS WORLD in 1967 on his return from reporting the violence in Aden and his interest in Nelson has continued. Indeed, eight of his books are about the admiral and his contemporaries; his HORATIO NELSON was runner-up for the Whitbread Biography Award of 1987. Tom Pocock has contributed to many magazines and appeared on television documentaries about Nelson and the subject of another of his biographies,the novelist and imperialist Sir Rider Haggard.

From Publishers Weekly

This richly detailed and entertaining account of the dramatic life of England's legendary hero, a self-confident, magnetic and paradoxical man, written by an officer of the Royal Navy and author of Nelson and His World, traces Nelson's rapid rise in the navy as a result not only of influence, but of his vigorous campaigns against the Spanish and French for control of the New World, followed by a prolonged struggle against Napoleon for supremacy of the seas. His bravery inspired the lasting love of Emma Hamilton, wife of the English ambassador to Naples, and won him an admiral's rank, knighthood and a seat in Parliament. Nelson paid for his triumphs, however, with the loss of his right arm and impaired sight, which, along with malaria and other injuries, "maimed him in spirit as in body." His greatest victorythe defeat at Trafalgar ofthe French and Spanish fleets, which would change the course of historycost him his life at age 47 in 1806.Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC and History Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0712661239
• ISBN 13: 9780712661232
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 364