The Fighting Temeraire

‘Cleverly uses the microcosm of the life story of one ship to reflect the wider narrative of the decades-long struggle between Britain and France for mastery of the seas’ Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *’*****Brilliant … Sam Willis has written a magnificent tribute to these superb ships and all who sailed in them’ Mail on Sunday. * Mail on Sunday *‘Willis offers an engaging biography of the Temeraire and gives a detailed picture of life in the sailing navy … (His) book is infused with his experience and knowledge of seafaring’ Times Literary Supplement. * Times Literary Supplement *‘an elegant lament for the vanished warships of the world and an eloquent plea for the preservation of those still afloat’ Bernard Cornwell in Wall Street Journal. * Wall Street Journal *

Sam Willis has lectured at Bristol University and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and consults on maritime painting for Christie’s. Sam spent eighteen months as a Square Rig Able Seaman, sailing the tall ships used in the Hornblower television series and Channel 4’s award-winning film Shackleton, and is a consultant to the BBC’s Coast. He is the author of Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century: The Art of Sailing Warfare and the highly successful Fighting Ships series for Quercus.