Aubrey-Maturin - The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey-Maturin, Book 18): Abridged edition

Patrick O’Brian, until his death in 2000, was one of our greatest contemporary novelists. He is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey–Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. He is the author of many other books including Testimonies, and his Collected Short Stories. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime’s contribution to literature. In the same year he was awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin. He lived for many years in South West France and he died in Dublin in January 2000.

”'Robert Hardy has a consummate knack of giving timbre and atmosphere to everything he reads. That’s not to dimiss O’Brian’s skilfully constructed adventures, where the dialogue and politics are of a very high order of authenticity.” - Time Out 5/2/97

'… full of the energy that comes from a writer having struck a vein… Patrick O'Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.' James Hamilton-Paterson -

‘If O’Brian’s novels have become a cult, this is because they are truly addictive… They are, quite magnificently, adventure yarns whose superb authenticity never distracts from the sheer thrill of the action.’Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph -

‘This is no mere sea story. It is history as it must have felt… Take up these books and you will share their dangers, taste their food and wine, tremble through their terrible battles, and understand for the first time the exacting and harsh nature of life in the Napoleonic era… Perhaps best of all is O’Brian’s mastery of the English language. He plays it like an orchestra, somehow bringing the rich, powerful speech of the period back to life.’Peter Hitchens, Daily Express -