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.
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.
I’m delighted to announce that my latest book, Silkworm! has been published. It isn’t about the 18th 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.
The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first twelve books are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the thirteenth book, Cousins At Arms, and it’s now available from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).
In 1761 the cousins King Louis of France and King Charles of Spain agreed in secret that Spain would enter the war against Britain by spring of the following year.
Edward Carlisle’s ship of the line Dartmouth is sent from Jamaica on what looks like a trivial mission intended to demonstrate friendship to Spain. However, in Havana he finds evidence of growing co-operation between the French and Spanish navies. While carrying the new governor of Guatemala to his domain he uncovers further plots, and his wife, Lady Chiara, uses her talents for languages and diplomacy to earn a seat at the ship’s councils of war.
Carlisle’s search for evidence of preparations for war takes him further west into the Gulf of Mexico, and to a final battle with a more familiar enemy.
Cousins At Arms offers the reader the thunder of guns and the clash of cutlasses, but at its heart it’s a thoughtful analysis of a nation’s ill-judged slide into war. This is the thirteenth Carlisle and Holbrooke novel. It continues the journey through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies, and ultimately to their bid for independence.
Look out for my next book to be published in a few weeks. Silkworm! 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. I’ll post here when it’s published.
The spring edition of the Quarterdeck magazine is available online including, on page 29, a review of the latest Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventure ‘Debatable Lands.’
You can download a copy of the Quarterdeck magazine here:
The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first eleven are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the twelfth Book, Treacherous Moon, and it’s now available from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).
It is 1761. The British prime minister, William Pitt, is faced with the need to relieve French pressure on Hanover. He is against sending more British regiments to the continent and instead decides to draw the French army away from Germany by a repeat of the descents on the French coast that he tried three years earlier. The chosen target is Belle Isle, an important island that lies between the principal French Atlantic naval ports.
George Holbrooke’s ship Argonaut is sent ahead of Commodore Keppel’s squadron to gather intelligence on the French army’s movements by inserting an intelligence agent into Brittany. The agent is betrayed and wounded, and his contact in France must be rescued from the certainty of a traitor’s death. Holbrooke finds that the only way to accomplish his orders is to land on French soil himself, by moonlight, and seek out the agent’s contact. In a ruined cottage close to the sea, he makes a surprising discovery.
Treacherous Moon is the twelfth Carlisle and Holbrooke novel. The series follows the two sea officers through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies prior to their bid for independence.
For those of you who prefer the printed word, Book 16 in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series, Debatable Lands, has been published in Kindle and Paperback formats, and is available from Amazon.
The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first ten are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the eleventh Book, Carlisle’s Duty, and it’s now available from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).
North America’s French and Indian War may be over, but at the end of 1760 the wider Seven Years War is still raging in Europe and across the seas of the world. Nevertheless, the New England merchants are growing restless at the restrictions on their trade with the French islands, and one Rhode Island company is determined to defy the law and bring home a cargo of contraband molasses.
Edward Carlisle’s ship Dartmouth is assigned to the Leeward Islands Squadron, tasked with blockading the remaining French Caribbean sugar islands. When he intercepts a New England ship suspected of trading with the enemy, he is left with a dilemma between his duty to his king and his loyalty to the colonies where he was born. What should be an open-and-shut case in the admiralty courts proves to be nothing of the sort.
Meanwhile, the French navy can still influence events, as Carlisle discovers when he is confronted by an enemy battle squadron with only a frigate to support him.
Carlisle’s Dutyis the eleventh Carlisle and Holbrooke novel. The series follows the two sea officers through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies prior to their bid for independence.
For those of you who prefer the printed word, Book 16 in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series, Debatable Lands, has been published in Kindle and Paperback formats, and is available from Amazon.
The sixteenth book in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series of naval adventures is now available. It’s titled Debatable Lands, which refers to the contested territory between the Portuguese Viceroyalty of Brazil and the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. This was the scene of a little-known incident in 1762 when a Portuguese force, escorted by British ships, sailed to the River Plate intending to settle the dispute by evicting the Spanish. Debatable Lands tells the story of that ill-conceived expedition.
Debatable Lands features Captain George Holbrooke in command of the frigate Argonaut. The ship and its captain have fought through the Seven Years War and are now looking for some well-earned rest, but instead must sail six thousand miles from home and deal with the self-destructive obsessions of a Spanish captain and his powerful ship. And then there’s the governor of Buenos Aires, an eighteenth-century tactical genius for whom the ownership of the northern bank of the River Plate is not at all in debate.
Debatable Landswas published today in Kindle and Paperback formats, but it might take a few days to be available in your regional Amazon store.
This sixteenth book in the series concludes the story of the Royal Navy in the Seven Years War. Carlisle and Holbrooke will return during the short interval of peace before the American War of Independence.
AUDIO EDITIONS
David Lane Pusey is narrating the whole series, book-by-book, and producing them in audio format. He’s presently working on #11 Carlisle’s Duty which I hope will be available before Christmas. The audio book of Debatable Lands will follow in its due sequence.
The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures are being published in audio format, one book at a time, and the first nine are already out there and being enjoyed. Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has completed his narration of the tenth Book, Nor’west By North, and it’s now available from the usual places (Amazon, Audible, iTunes).
By late 1759 it is clear that France is losing the Seven Years War. In a desperate gamble, the French Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets combine to dominate the Channel and cover a landing in the south of England, but they are annihilated by Admiral Hawke at Quiberon Bay. Meanwhile, a diversionary landing is planned in the north of Britain, and it sails from Dunkirk before news of the disaster at Quiberon Bay can reach its commander. The ill-fated expedition sets out to circumnavigate Britain in an attempt to salvage something from the failed strategy.
George Holbrooke, newly promoted to post-captain and commanding the frigate Argonaut, joins a squadron sent to intercept the French expedition. The quest takes him to Sweden, the Faroes, the Western Isles of Scotland and then to Ireland and the Isle of Man. The final act is played out at a secluded anchorage in the Bristol Channel.
Nor’west by North is the tenth Carlisle and Holbrooke novel. The series follows Carlisle and his protégé Holbrooke through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies prior to their bid for independence.
For those of you who prefer the printed word, Book 16 in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series (no name yet) is in production and (if the stars align and the tide is high) will be published in Kindle and paperback before the end of the year.
Welcome to the Carlisle and Holbrooke naval adventures. The series follows Edward Carlisle, a native of Williamsburg, Virginia, and his protégé George Holbrooke of Wickham, Hampshire, as they navigate the political and professional storms of the Seven Years War through to the War of American Independence.
