I’ve been invited to talk to the Waltham Chase History Group about the Seven Years War at sea and how it’s portrayed in the Carlisle & Holbrooke Adventures, at 7.30pm on Tuesday 5th May 2026.

The meeting is in the basement of the Methodist Church on Curdridge Lane, Waltham Chase, Hampshire, SO32 2LD. There’s plenty of parking at the rear of the church.

To avoid disappointment and in respect to my many American readers, This Waltham Chase is in Old Hampshire, England, not New Hampshire, USA. I say this because I once got over-excited at attending an event in Portsmouth Hampshire (12 miles from my home) only to find it was in Portsmouth Virginia!

This is an open talk, anyone can attend, and the doors open at 7.15pm. There’s an entrance fee of £5 payable on the door, which includes refreshments afterwards. The vibe (I think that’s the right word) is comfortable chairs and profound informality and there’s no need to make a reservation, just turn up!

There will be an opportunity to buy paperback copies of the Carlisle & Holbrooke Adventure novels at £10 each, significantly less than the online price.

For those who’ve already read some of the Carlisle & Holbrooke books, Waltham Chase is just three miles from George Holbrooke’s home in Wickham and fourteen miles from the King’s Yard at Portsmouth. You wouldn’t have to walk far to see the great fleet anchorage at Spithead. It’s at the very epicentre of the action.

Hope to see you there.

Nothing Really Changes in International Affairs

Iran claims to have closed the Straits of Hormuz as America decimates the Iranian navy.

Well, the Iranians tried that before in the late 1980s. By sheer chance I published my novel Silkworm! last year, and it deals with exactly those events. It’s a dramatized account of four days during which a British destroyer escorts tankers through the Straits, battling Iranian frigates, gunboats, shore-based missiles and mines. I felt qualified to write on this subject because I was the operations officer on just such a destroyer in the Spring of 1988, at the very height of the Gulf Tanker war. In my humble opinion Silkworm! is well worth reading to gain an impression of what western navies might be up against if they need to operate in the Gulf again. It’s a great novel too!

Silkworm is available from Amazon in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback.

The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first fifteen books are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the sixteenth book, Debatable Lands, and it’s now on sale from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).

When Spain joined the Seven Years War on the side of France, one of its aims was to conquer Britain’s ally, Portugal. They launched three separate land invasions, each of them ultimately unsuccessful, but each a deadly, existential threat to their neighbour. Portugal, meanwhile, was determined to hit back at Spain’s sprawling colonial empire, and the Debatable Lands between Brazil and the River Plate Estuary offered a tempting target. Finding themselves short of ships, the Portuguese government contracted a London company of merchant adventurers to provide two large privateers as the naval element of the expedition.

In September 1762 George Holbrooke, in his frigate Argonaut, is sent on a six-thousand-mile voyage to assist the Anglo-Portuguese expedition. However, Argonaut is not the only man-of-war heading for the River Plate. He finds a familiar adversary already there, eager to settle old scores. The scene is set for a final battle, and the winner will be the captain who can best exploit the shifting sandbanks of this shallow estuary.

This sixteenth novel brings the Seven Years War to an end. However, Carlisle and Holbrooke’s adventures continue as our heroes adjust to an unfamiliar peace, and Britain and her American colonies set out on diverging paths with different visions of the future.

Red Gold

The seventeenth Carlisle & Holbrooke adventure, Red Gold, takes Edward Carlisle in search of the dark secrets of his wife’s past. It’s available now in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback formats and will be released as an audio book in the summer.

I’d always intended to continue the Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures through the period of peace after the Seven Years war and then into the American War of Independence. I’m delighted to tell you that the first post-war novel is now available.

Red Gold is the seventeenth book in the series, and it takes Edward and Chiara Carlisle to the Mediterranean. When Edward Carlisle’s ship Dartmouth was lost on the shoals inside Cape Henry, he envisaged himself settling down to the life of a wealthy gentleman in Virginia. He wouldn’t seek another ship, and he wouldn’t pester their Lordships of the Admiralty; his seagoing days were over. However, it was not to be. He’d always known that there was some dark secret in Chiara’s past, and news from Sardinia made it imperative that it should no longer be ignored. It seemed such a simple task, nothing compared to the adventures that he’d experienced in the service of King George. Simple, until the full extent of the tortuous and deadly politics of the Angelini family are revealed.

Red Gold is published today in Kindle and Paperback formats, but it might take a few days to be available in your regional Amazon store.

Next Book: The eighteenth book in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series will bring George Holbrooke to the American colonies in 1765, the year of the Stamp Act. I expect to complete it in the early summer of 2026.

Audio Editions: David Lane Pusey is narrating the whole Carlisle & Holbrooke series, book-by-book, and producing them in audio format. He’s presently working on #16 Debatable Lands which will be available in the spring.

Fun Fact: If you’ve kept up with Carlisle & Holbrooke’s adventures so far, well done! You’ve read the equivalent in word-count of (approximately) three Lord of the Rings Trilogies or three readings of War and Peace!

The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first fourteen books are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the fourteenth book, Old Bahama Straits, and it’s now available from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).

Britain’s response was fast and decisive when Spain joined the Seven Years War on the side of France. Guarded by a naval battle squadron, regiments drawn from Britain, the American colonies, and the garrisons of captured French islands were sent to lay siege to Havana. With Havana in British hands the Flota’s route to carry the wealth of the Indies to Spain would be threatened and the Spanish economy would collapse, knocking Spain out of the war in one stroke. That was the plan, but the British invasion force soon learned the gruesome reality of campaigning in the tropics.

In the early summer of 1762 Edward Carlisle in his fourth rate ship-of-the-line Dartmouth is sent to scout the route to Havana through the dangerous Old Bahama Straits, and to bring in the vital American reinforcement convoys. With his growing fluency in Spanish, and his contacts in Havana, he becomes embroiled in the difficult negotiations between a besieging army weakened by disease and a proud city on the brink of a humiliating defeat.

This is the fifteenth Carlisle and Holbrooke novel, continuing the journey through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies.

Red Gold

Look out for my next book to be published in a few weeks. Red Gold takes Edward Carlisle in search of the dark secrets of his wife’s past. I’ll post here when it’s published.

The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first thirteen books are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the fourteenth book, An Upright Man, and it’s now available from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).

Even before Spain joined the war in early 1762, it was obvious that it wouldn’t have the strategic effect that the cousins, King Louis and King Charles, had hoped.  France needed a success to bring Britain to the negotiating table: nothing grand – Louis didn’t have the force for that – but something that would hurt the City of London in its pocket.

A raid on the Newfoundland fisheries would have an immediate financial impact. In normal times the dried cod provided an important dietary supplement to the population of the Atlantic basin and a steady stream of gold for the City’s coffers. The longer-lasting effect would come from the loss of the trained seamen that the fishery provided to the navy in time of war.

George Holbrooke’s frigate Argonaut is in the thick of the action as he is pitted against an old adversary.

SILKWORM!

Meanwhile, you might like to try Silkworm!This is a dramatized account of the Royal Navy’s operations in the Gulf Tanker War in 1988. It’s quite different to my Seven Years War books and neither Carlisle nor Holbrooke are involved. Silkworm! is a work of fiction, but its inspiration came from my own experiences as the Operations Officer of HMS Exeter, a guided missile destroyer, at the height of the tanker war.

Silkworm! is available from Amazon in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and paperback.

Israeli and American attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities have prompted the Iranian government to threaten to close the Straits of Hormuz.

Well, they tried that before in the late 1980s and by sheer chance I published my latest novel Silkworm! just last month, and it deals with exactly those events. It’s a dramatised account of four days during which a british destroyer escorts tankers through the Straits, battling Iranian frigates, gunboats, shore-based missiles and mines. I felt qualified to write on this subject because I was the operations officer on just such a destoyer in the Spring of 1988, at the very height of the Gulf Tanker war. In my humble opinion Silkworm! is well worth reading to gain an impression of what western navies might be up against if Iran makes good on its threats. It’s a great novel too!

Silkworm! is available from Amazon in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback.

I met Tony Noon at the Bowlines Maritime Literature Festival last weekend. Tony is publishing the best of the contemporary first-hand accounts from the age of sail, with essential annotations regarding the people, the places, and the historical background. I’m reading the first two of these: William Beatty’s ‘The Death of Horatio Nelson’ and William Robinson’s autobiography, ‘The World of Jack Nastyface,’ and I thoroughly recommend them both. Tony has done the heavy lifting in terms of research, and his notes save hours of delving into obscure references. They’re definitely worth reading and I’m looking forward to future volumes.

Both volumes are available from Amazon.

Have you heard about the maritime literary festival on Friday 6th June and Saturday 7th June? It’s in Exeter, Devon, England and it’s based at the historic Custom House and around Exeter’s Heritage Harbour.

There’s a packed agenda with a range of speakers including writers of fiction and non-fiction nautical history.

Follow the link below for more details.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

A Brooding Storm in the Arabian Gulf

I’m delighted to announce that my latest book, Silkworm! has been published. It isn’t about the 18^th century sailing navy but nevertheless the subject will be of interest to Carlisle & Holbrooke readers.

Silkworm! is a dramatized account of four days in the life of a fictional Royal Navy guided missile destroyer HMS Winchester during the Arabian Gulf Tanker War in 1988. That was the year that USS Samuel B. Roberts hit an Iranian mine, USS Vincennes shot down a commercial airliner and Operation Praying Mantis decimated the Iranian Navy in an afternoon.

I’m tempted to call it recent historical fiction, but to me it’s not history until there’s been a definite end point to the events, and that’s certainly not the case in the Arabian Gulf. When I look at the news from the Middle East it all sounds very familiar.

Silkworm! is heavily influenced by my own experiences as the operations officer of HMS Exeter during that period, but it’s definitely not autobiographical; it’s fiction and the ships and all the characters are invented.

In the late twentieth century the world economy was fuelled by oil, most coming from the Arabian Gulf. Giant seaborne tankers brought their cargoes through the Straits of Hormuz and into the oceanic trade routes. All the Gulf nations had an interest in keeping the oil flowing until Iran attempted to close the Straits in the nineteen-eighties. Iran laid mines and used frigates and armed speedboats to intercept the defenceless merchant ships. However, their most dangerous weapon was the Silkworm anti-ship missile, which they deployed to launch sites along their shore. Western nations responded by sending naval task groups to clear the mines and to escort the tankers through the Straits and out of the Gulf. A whole generation of Royal Navy sailors knew this as the Armilla Patrol.

Silkworm! is published today in Kindle and Paperback formats, but it might take a few days to be available in your regional Amazon store.

My next book will be the seventeenth in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series, set during the period of peace between the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence.

AUDIO EDITIONS

David Lane Pusey is narrating the whole Carlisle & Holbrooke series, book-by-book, and producing them in audio format. He’s presently working on #14 An Upright Man which will be available during the summer. I hope that the audio edition of Silkworm! will be published in the winter of 2025 or the spring of 2026.