My family is both British and American, so we celebrate Thanksgiving even though were at the far side of the world (almost). It has to be on the Saturday after, because the Thursday isn’t a holiday here, so I can’t show our table for this year but here’s a picture from 2022. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
It’s been a long time coming but yesterday I published Book 14 in Kindle and Paperback. It’s called An Upright Man; I won’t spoil it be telling you the meaning of the title. What I can say is that it’s set in the dying days of the Seven Years War when the French King wanted to put pressure on Britain in advance of peace negotiations. He needed a rapid success and he’d already found that land operations couldn’t achieve that. His chosen target was a small but economically significant colony of Britain, and he sent his boldest naval commander to capture it, destroy its infrastructure, and depart before the already stretched British navy could react. The story reveals how far the strategy succeeded, and the part that Captain George Holbrooke of His Britannic Majesty’s frigate Argonaut played in this drama, and if you yearn for a true French naval hero then you’ll find him in this book.
An Upright Man is available in Kindle and Paperback formats in all of the regional Amazon markets.
David Lane Pusey is working hard to narrate the whole series and I’m presently reviewing Book 8 Niagara Squadron which given a fair wind will be available before Christmas. The audio book of An Upright Man will follow in due course
While we celebrate the 218th anniversary of Lord Nelson’s victory off Cape Trafalgar, how many people now remember the other naval battle that happened on a previous 21st October?
It was in 1757, the second year of the Seven Years War, and things were not going well for Britain or for her navy. Mobilisation had been slow and only six months earlier Admiral Byng had been executed on the quarterdeck of a ship-of-the-line in for ‘not doing his utmost’ in defending Minorca from a French squadron. A naval victory was needed to steady the country and reassure Britain’s allies, and it came in the faraway Caribbean off Cape François (now Cap Haitien in Haiti.)
A French battle squadron had been sent to bring home an important convoy that had gathered at Cape François. The Comte de Kersaint had a strong force of four of the line and three frigates while Captain Arthur Forrest had a blockading squadron comprising his own ship Augusta, a fourth rate of sixty guns; Dreadnought, another sixty-gun fourth rate commanded by Maurice Suckling (you can perhaps see where this is leading now); and Edinburgh, Captain Langdon’s sixty-four-gun third rate.
Wikipedia has a useful description of the action after de Kersaint tried to bring his convoy out of Cape François:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cap-Fran%C3%A7ais
I won’t repeat it all here, but the conclusion was that Forrest’s squadron out-manoeuvred and out-fought de Kersaint’s ships and the French convoy had to turn back to Cape François. It was just the victory that King George needed, and the country’s faith in its navy was restored.
After Cape François, Maurice Suckling (remember him?) didn’t take part in any more notable actions during his long naval career. If it weren’t for his role in bringing his nephew, Horatio Nelson, to sea, his name would have sunk into obscurity long ago.
Forty-eight years after the Battle of Cape François to the very day, on the morning of the twenty-first of October 1805, off Cape Trafalgar, the combined fleets of Spain and France were in sight. Vice Admiral Lord Nelson was heard by Victory’s surgeon to remark that, ‘the twenty-first of October was the happiest day in the year among my family,’ and several times in the days before Trafalgar he said to Captain Hardy and Doctor Scott, ‘the twenty-first of October will be our day.’
Nelson had no important naval connections other than his maternal uncle, of whom the whole family was immensely proud. His family annually feasted the anniversary of the Battle of Cape François, and it’s entirely reasonable to imagine that it was the story of that action that led Nelson to choose the navy. For Nelson chose the navy, he wasn’t pushed into it. More-or-less out of the blue he asked his father to write to Maurice Suckling asking if he would take young Horatio to sea. Suckling famously replied, ‘What has poor Horace done, who is so weak, that he above all the rest should be sent to rough it at sea? But let him come, and the first time that we go into action, a cannon-ball may blow off his head, and provide for him at once.’ Suckling took Nelson as a youngster into his ship Raisonnable, a sixty-four-gun third-rate ship-of-the-line.
Without the Battle of Cape François, Nelson may have chosen the church as a career. It would have been the obvious choice for the third son of a country parson, particularly so as neither of his elder brothers chose the cloth. Instead, he went to sea and achieved immortality at Cape St. Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen and finally at Trafalgar where he lost his life giving his country its greatest naval victory.
If you subscribe to a causal interpretation of history, then you can spin all sorts of interesting alternative histories, with Horatio Nelson spending his years writing sermons and baptising babies, rather than leading majestic fleets into action amid the thunder of great guns!
So, on this twenty-first of October, as we toast ‘The Immortal memory’ spare a thought for Arthur Forrest and his little squadron that fought and won in faraway Hispaniola and laid the foundations for the greatest of victories nearly half a century later.
You can read a dramatized account of the battle of Cape Francois in ‘The Jamaica Station’ the third of thirteen (so far) Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures, written by myself.
The release of the Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures in audiobook format continues with the publication of the seventh in the series – Rocks and Shoals – which is available from Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Like books three, four, five and six, Rocks and Shoals is narrated by David Lane Pusey, who this time reads the story of the assault on Quebec in 1759, during the Seven Years War.
With the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the French in North America were firmly on the back foot. Pitt’s grand strategy for 1759 was to launch a three-pronged attack on Canada. One army would move north from Lake Champlain, and another smaller force would strike across the wilderness to Lake Ontario and French-held Fort Niagara. A third, under Admiral Saunders and General Wolfe, would sail up the Saint Lawrence, where no battle fleet had ever been, and capture Quebec.
Captain Edward Carlisle sails ahead of the battle fleet to find a way through the legendary dangers of the Saint Lawrence River. An unknown sailing master assists him. James Cook has a talent for surveying and cartography and will achieve immortality in later years.
There are rocks and shoals aplenty before Carlisle and his frigate Medina are caught up in the near-fatal indecision of the summer when General Wolfe tastes the bitterness of early setbacks.
The series follows Carlisle and his protégé George Holbrooke through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies in the 1760s.
You can find the audiobook edition of Rocks and Shoals (and the previous books) on Amazon, Audible and iTunes; just search for the title of the book or my name – Chris Durbin. You can also find all thirteen of the Carlisle and Holbrooke series on Amazon in Paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited editions.
The manuscript of book fourteen is under way but as it concerns a little-known event in the seven years war, it’s taking more research time than I had hoped.
Meanwhile, David Lane Pusey has started narrating book eight, Niagara Squadron, and I hope that will be available in audio format around the end of the year.
The release of the Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures in audiobook format continues with the publication of the fifth in the series – The Cursed Fortress – which is now available from Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Like books three and four, The Cursed Fortress is narrated by David Lane Pusey, who this time reads the story of Britain’s expedition to Louisbourg to clear the way for the invasion of French-owned Canada during the Seven Years War.
Louisbourg stood at the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, massive and impregnable, a permanent provocation to the British colonies. It was Canada’s first line of defence, guarding the approaches to Quebec, from where all New France lay open to invasion. It had to fall before a British fleet could be sent up the St. Lawrence. Otherwise, there would be no resupply and no line of retreat; Canada would become the graveyard of George II’s navy. A failed attempt on Louisbourg in 1757 had only stiffened the government’s resolve; the Cursed Fortress must fall in 1758. Captain Carlisle’s frigate joins the blockade of Louisbourg before winter’s icy grip has eased. Battling fog, hail, rain, frost and snow, suffering scurvy and fevers, and with a constant worry about the wife he left behind in Virginia, Carlisle will face his greatest test of leadership and character yet.
The series follows Carlisle & Holbrooke through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies in the 1760s.
You can find the audiobook edition of The Cursed Fortress (and the previous four books) on Amazon, Audible and iTunes; just search for the title of the book or my name – Chris Durbin. You can also find all thirteen of the Carlisle and Holbrooke series on Amazon in Paperback, Kindle and Kindle Unlimited editions.
And the plans for the rest of 2023? I hope that books fourteen and fifteen will be released in paperback and Kindle, and books six, seven and eight will be released as audiobooks.
You can also download a copy from your local Amazon marketplace (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA) by going directly to the appropriate website and searching for ‘The Cursed Fortress.’
And here’s a link to the Amazon UK site
Enjoy the adventures.
I may argue with my brother, but I fight beside my brother against my cousin, and with my cousin against a stranger.*
I’m pleased to announce that Cousins At Arms has been published in Paperback and Kindle and is also available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. This is the thirteenth in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series and it takes Edward Carlisle to Havana, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula in 1761 & 1762. It deals with the consequences of the Third Family Pact between the Bourbon cousins King Louis of France and King Charles of Spain which led to Spain’s disastrous entry into the Seven Years War. In this book Carlisle’s wife, Lady Chiara, makes an impact on events.
You can secure a copy of Cousins At Arms on any of the Amazon websites. For convenience, the links below will take you to the correct page on some of the most popular national sites:
It can take a while for the all the Amazon sites to make the linkages with the other books in the series and to make the book available in all formats, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see the whole set of Carlisle & Holbrooke adventures advertised when you search for Cousins At Arms.
As always, if you would like a signed paperback copy, just use the CONTACT tab for this website (ensure your own email address is correctly inserted) or email me at: chris.durbin@outlook.com.
If you choose to read Cousins At Arms, I very much hope you enjoy the story.
And just a reminder, the first four books are available as AUDIOBOOK editions. I hope to publish book 5 in audiobook edition soon (in the next month or so), and then all the others in sequence at roughly two-or-three-month intervals until they catch up with the Kindle and Paperback editions. The audiobooks can be found on Amazon, Audible or iTunes.
*Old Arab Adage
The fourth book in the series is now available as an audiobook, again narrated by
David Lane Pusey
Holbrooke’s Tide is the first book where George Holbrooke features as a commanding officer in his own right.
It is 1758, and the Seven Years War is at its height. The Duke of Cumberland’s Hanoverian army has been pushed back to the river Elbe while the French are using the medieval fortified city of Emden to resupply their army and to anchor its left flank.
George Holbrooke has recently returned from the Jamaica Station in command of a sloop-of-war. He is under orders to survey and blockade the approaches to Emden in advance of the arrival of a British squadron. The French garrison and their Austrian allies are nervous. With their supply line cut, they are in danger of being isolated when the French army is forced to retreat in the face of the new Prussian-led army that is gathering on the Elbe. Can the French be bluffed out of Emden? Is this Holbrooke’s flood tide that will lead to his next promotion?
The Carlisle & Holbrooke series follows the exploits of the two men through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies in the 1760s.
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Clicking the picture above will take you to the Amazon USA website.
You can also download a copy from your local Amazon marketplace (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK) by going directly to the appropriate website and searching for ‘Holbrooke’s Tide.’
And here’s a link to the Amazon UK site
The audiobooks are also available from Audible and iTunes.
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Look out for future audio book releases. I hope they will come at two-or-three-month intervals until they have caught up with the Kindle and paperback editions.
Great news! The third Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventure – The Jamaica Station – is now available as an Audiobook, narrated by the wonderful
David Lane Pusey
You can download a copy from:
Audible
Amazon
iTunes
I hope to release the remaining volumes as audiobooks at two-or-three-month intervals until I catch up with the Kindle and Paperback versions
I hope you enjoy the adventure!
I’m a couple of weeks late, but here is a rare photograph of a gathering of four naval fiction authors. The occasion was the annual dinner of the Society for Nautical Research on board the restored HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Left to right: Chris & Lucia Durbin (The Carlisle & Holbrooke series, set in the Seven Years War), Kitty & Alaric Bond (The Fighting Sail series set in the Napoleonic Wars), Jan & Philip K. Allan (the Alexander Clay Napoleonic War series and the Wolves WW2 series) and Antoine Vanner (The Dawlish Chronicles, set in the Victorian era).
It was great getting together, here’s hoping for a repeat in future.
I’m pleased to report that Treacherous Moon has been published in Paperback and Kindle and is also available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. This is the twelfth in the Carlisle & Holbrooke series and it takes George Holbrooke to the expedition against the French island of Belle Isle in 1761. It’s a darker tale than the first eleven books, dealing with espionage and betrayal and the mental and physical exhaustion that comes with years of warfare. The book cover offers a foretaste of the subject.
You can secure a copy of Treacherous Moon on any of the Amazon websites but for convenience the following links will take you to some of the most popular national sites:
Treacherous Moon on Amazon USA
Treacherous Moon on Amazon Canada
Treacherous Moon on Amazon Australia
Treacherous Moon on Amazon Germany
It can take a week for the all the Amazon sites to make the linkages with the other books in the series and to make the book available in all formats, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see the whole set of Carlisle & Holbrooke adventures advertised when you search for Treacherous Moon.
As always, if you would like a signed paperback copy, just contact me by replying to this post.
If you choose to read Treacherous Moon, I very much hope you enjoy the story.
*Falstaff explaining his nocturnal behaviour. William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part I
