Growing up in an age where there were precious few teenage novels, what could an avaricious male reader devour in those tender years? Well, I and many others, loved the Hornblower novels of C.S Forester. Our love was increased by the stirring film with Gregory Peck and James Robertson Justice.
Now following the T.V. series all the novels have been re-issued in a handsome package and after nearly thirty years I’m loving them once more. Much of the technical stuff still goes over my head and maybe they could benefit from one of those maps that tell us where a mizzen mast or for’castle is situated (but your fingers would only get sore from flipping backwards and forwards!).
The main character is a far more complex character than I remember and the French far more perfidious, but the books are as gripping as ever. All have a helpful number to indicate what order in which to read them and they’re far more readable than the works of such pale imitators as Patrick O’ Brian or Bernard Cornwell; the latter providing a useful introduction to each of the novels.
