Résultats de "David Donachie" dans Toutes les catégories

1794. In the wake of the Glorious First of June, Lieutenant John Pearce has pressing matters to attend to. He must undertake an urgent commission from Lord Hood, track down midshipman Toby Burns, and placate Emily Barclay. Meanwhile smugglers whose ship Pearce inadvertently stole, are on his tail. And it is not only John Pearce who has his fair share of trouble. The triumphant Channel Fleet returns, but the battle is already the subject of controversy –and Ralph Barclay is accused of holding back from the action.

1799: Having evacuated the King and Queen of Naples ahead of Napoleon’s advancing army, Nelson must now await developments in Sicily. In the meantime, he and Emma savour their passionate affair, and when Nelson travels back to Britain with the Hamiltons, he finds he is the toast of Europe. To the British elite, however, Nelson is a dangerous upstart, and his love for Emma is his weakness. With rising resentment, Nelson and Emma are forced to keep up appearances. As the war with Napoleon drags on, Nelson engages the Danish fleet at Copenhagen with stunning results.

It’s 1784, and Nelson is sent to the Caribbean to enforce the hated Navigation Acts. While there, he marries Franny Nisbet. Ordered next to the Mediterranean, he engages in a string of spectacular naval battles. The ravages of war take their physical toll on Nelson, even as he gains the fame and honour he craves. At the same time, Emma, mistress of Charles Greville, sits as an artist’s model....

Lieutenant John Pearce is in London seeking protection for his friends, the Pelicans, from a reluctant Admiralty. Sitting in the tavern where they were first press ganged, Pearce considers his future. Lacking the evidence of perjury he once had to bring Captain Ralph Barclay to justice, his prospects are not promising. Ralph Barclay’s young wife, Emily, is refusing to live under the same roof as him and she has the means to get her own way: the evidence Pearce believes was lost at sea.

It is 1795. As war spreads across the globe, Harry Ludlow joins the struggle for the richest trade in the world. When half his crew is illegally pressed into the Royal Navy by the vicious Captain Toner, Harry sets off in pursuit. Toner's ship reaches the West Indies with Harry close behind, and they sail into a maelstrom of piracy, corruption, and murder, stirred up by a French privateer. Soon, the British officer in charge of the station calls upon each man to help as best he can.

Privateersman Harry Ludlow and his partner and younger brother, James, find that murder and intrigue take up more of their time than the hunt for fat trading vessels. Arriving in the squalid, seething port of Genoa, they find it a tinderbox of tension, fed by the discovery of a hanged British sea captain and packs of English and French sailors at each other's throats.

London: 1793. Young firebrand John Pearce, on the run from the authorities, is illegally press-ganged from the Pelican tavern into brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on her way to war. In the first few days, Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. And he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader.

1794. Lieutenant John Pearce is caught between a feuding trio of admirals. One puts him in a position of danger while another asks him to undertake a hazardous commission in order to protect his friends, the Pelicans. Meanwhile, Pearce is also trying to construct a perjury case against Admiral Ralph Barclay.

1794...Returning to England, Harry and James become embroiled in a vicious struggle between rival smugglers played out in the English Channel. Witnesses to a bloody confrontation, they flee to Deal - only to find that, behind its picturesque facade, the town is a haven for traders in contraband, seething with corruption and violence.

1793: the onset of Britain's conflict with Revolutionary France. Ex-captain turned privateer, Harry Ludlow finds himself on board the naval 74-gun Magnanime, with his brother James. In command is Oliver Carter, a captain with whom Harry has an unfortunate history. But when James is found standing over the body of a dead officer, old scores appear to be put aside…at least for the time being. Blinded by his own prejudice, Harry sets out to prove his brother’s innocence, but it is soon apparent that his feud with Carter is not the only dark secret aboard the Magnanime.

New Orleans, 1795. The discovery of an abandoned Spanish merchant ship off the coast of America plunges the Ludlows into a far-reaching conspiracy fuelled by jealousy, ambition and nationalistic fervour. The Bucephalas lies trapped under the gaping muzzles of the 32-punder Spanish guns of New Orleans’ harbour fort. It quickly becomes clear that the corridors of the governor’s residence are just as busy with treachery, double-dealing, and murder as the back alleys of the sweltering city outside.

1796… The long-awaited return of the Bucephalas to the safety of Cinque Ports if interrupted by a disastrous engagement in the Channel. The looming shape of a merchantman becalmed in fog presents an almost irresistible allure. But for Harry Ludlow and his battle-weary crew, the pursuit of one last easy prize leads to a desperate fight. Yet, it is events closer to home that present the greatest danger.

Pressed into King George's Navy for the second time in a month, John Pearce finds himself working aboard HMS Griffin, sailing the Channel in search of the numerous French privateers preying on English merchant ships. Pearce, however, has other things on his mind. He must find a way off the ship in order to rescue his ailing father from the dangers of revolutionary Paris.

On a Making Tide chronicles the fascinating early years of Horatio Nelson and Emma Lyon. Both determined to rise from obscurity, they set about making their ways through the world with corresponding recklessness and precocious ambition. Nelson enters the Royal Navy at the ae of twelve and is made a post captain at the age of 20 – his reputation as a daring yet benevolent officer secured in the American War of Independence.

Firebrand John Pearce has been promoted to lieutenant and is in a position of command on board HMS Faron when he returns to Toulon from his successful mission in Corsica.

The year is 1794. Free from jail, John Pearce is not free from the smugglers whose boat he stole. While lying low, Pearce soon has other pressing concerns on his mind. Granted a commission by William Pitt, John Pearce evades his pursuers by undertaking a dangerous mission in France. As rebellious ambition turns to bloody disaster, Pearce must try to re-join Admiral Howe. Also serving with Howe is Ralph Barclay - who has somehow contrived to yet again press Pearce’s friends into his crew.

John Pearce's recent promotion means that he is finally free to follow his own wishes. But the same can't be said for his trio of closest friends, who are shipped off to the Mediterranean. Pearce vows to liberate them from the brutal tyrant they are serving under. His application to William Pitt finds him sailing off with secret dispatches for Admiral Lord Hood. But when Captain Ralph Barclay puts the lives of his crew at risk, Pearce must embark on a dangerous mission before he can free his friends.

It is 1793. John Pearce and his Pelicans are going home - to gain their freedom and put the treacherous Captain Ralph Barclay in the dock. Emily Barclay discovers Pearce has papers that would ruin her husband’s career and her future security. And then comes that dread thing, a fire aboard a wooden ship of war! Cast adrift, Pearce and his Pelicans find help from an unlikely source.

John Pearce is hiding in Gravelines with his mysterious companion, known to him as Oliphant. Although they find a crew willing to take them back to England, they learn on the journey that Pearce’s old enemies, the Tolland brothers, are still active on the route and may have been responsible for the murder of Catherine Carruthers. Back in England their problems continue: Pearce must seek to mend fences with Emily Barclay, in a relationship in which nothing is simple.

1787. Captain Edward Brazier is wounded and in desperate need of medical attention, but those from whom he could seek help have no idea where he is - although neither do his enemies. With his beloved Betsey currently imprisoned by her brother Henry, who is considering committing her to an asylum to take her off his hands, time is running out for Brazier to rescue her and end the tyranny of the local smuggling ring of Deal once and for all.