NELSON, The Immortal Memory

Here, from two of the United Kingdom's finest naval historians, is an immensely human portrait of Horatio Nelson, the most honored naval leader Britain has ever known. A great seaman and tactician who possessed an extraordinary ability to inspire respect and devotion, Nelson was a mass of contradicitions-humble yet ambitious, kind but at times petulant, exceptionally charming but often vain and self-pitying, unswerving in his sense of professional duty yet involved in a scandalous love affair.

The Howarths have captured not only the man but his time, evoking a remarkable sense of what it was like to sail the seas in nelson]s day, in peace and in war. The great battles of St Vincent, the Nile and Copenhagen spring to life, as do the achievements of the British blockading fleet off the French coast in the months and years before the victory at Trafalgar-a victory so decisive and devastating that it put an end to war at sea for a century.

The late David Howarth was also the author of Trafalgar: The Nelson Touch and Waterloo: Day of Battle. His son, Stephen, is an acclaimed author and experienced sailor.

David Howarth was a radio war correspondent, a naval officer during World War II, and the author of The Shetland Bus. He died in 1991. Stephen Howarth, the son of David Howarth, is an acclaimed author and an experienced sailor.