Aubrey/Maturin views please

Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

I read a couple of POBs and quickly got bored with them. IMHO they are a sort of Nelsonian mix of Cartland and WE Johns.

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Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

I've never read any Cartland so I couldn't possibly comment, I always thought that they were for big pink girlies, rather than the virile balding sort.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the works of Capt. W.E. Johns, his BigLes adventures are excellent stuff, battling to save Britain from those foriegn Johnies, and the lad even contributes to the forum himself now and again.

<hr width=100% size=1>Think I'll draw some little rabbits on my head, from a distance they might be mistaken for hairs.
 
One more series of 14 books for you to try:

The Nathaniel Drinkwater series.

Richard Woodman is a Master Mariner who retired as Commodore of Trinity House and has sailed gaff cutters for fun all his life; you can be reasonably confident of the accuracy of the nautical bits - and he is a decent chap!

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?
 
Re: Works for me

Read and re-read, not necessarily in chronological order. Very dry and funny - greatly enjoyed. Film was of a different type - few direct references and minus all humour, and no Irish accent for Paul Bettany, which is distinct in the books.

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Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

Thanks Jimi + Jenku, I'll pick up for my holiday reading.

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Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

sorry, but have to agree that whilst fun and entertaining, they do fall into airport reading category.

Most certainly not ' superb' , they just have a big following in boaty camps, and not to be detracted from, just because they have mass appeal in certain quarters

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

"An interesting thing here is that Patrick OBrian is said to have quite a lot of female readers." One of these is my elderly mother who doesn't know a mobo from a raggie. She's rivetted but it clearly ain't by the nautical bits; no, it's the characterisation and the sense of actually peeping plausibly into a small community. A bit like that book about daily life in a medieval French village, Montauban, or something like that. Airport literature? No, it's too carefully crafted for that, and not written to formula (a bonk or murder every 5 pages) - sometimes nothing 'exciting' happens for yonks, but it's just as enjoyable.

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>
 
Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

I am reading "Billy Ruffian" (David Cordingly?) at the moment. A gentle but interesting book about the life of/on, HMS Bellerophon. Following her from construction, through the campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars.

I think the author was, or is, a memeber of the staff of the Greenwich Museum staff (Curator of Art?), so he should have had a good supply of contemporary accounts available to draw upon.

Steve.

<hr width=100% size=1>Think I'll draw some little rabbits on my head, from a distance they might be mistaken for hairs.
 
Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

<nothing 'exciting' happens for yonks>

an understatement if anything. currently on p152 of Far side of the world and nothing, absolutely nothing has happened so far. a fair description of a passage from gib to brazil but not a single buckle swashed (or is it the other way round?)

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Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

Those pages do "paint a picture" of the everyday life and routines aboard and provide chances for readers to get to know the characters though, and, as I have mentioned elsewhere, help the author to spin 20 odd novels out of the yarn /forums/images/icons/smile.gif. There has been a lot of criticism concerning the sheer volume of action seen by Jack Aubrey, with suggestions that he has more than his fair share. So maybe it is right for him to leave his buckle/ swash alone now and again.

<hr width=100% size=1>Think I'll draw some little rabbits on my head, from a distance they might be mistaken for hairs.
 
Re: Thames Tonnage and other schoolboy howlers

Nice to see after this long thread, that we're ending on a positive note /forums/images/icons/smile.gif!

<hr width=100% size=1>Nickel

Being paranoid simply means - having all the facts.
 
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