| Kelly Maguire"THE LION AT SEA"Royal Navy Max Hennessy novel |
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THE LION AT SEA 1st. 1977 by SBN 241 89745 9 £12.00 plus P & P |
A green cloth bound book with light blue lettering to spine which is lightly bumped both ends and book very slightly shelf worn; page block is unmarked and very clean; VERY GOOD condition. |
Jacket blurbs
In this epic story of the Navy in World War I the Lion is Kelly Maguire (`Ginger' to his shipmates), a young Anglo-Irishman of extraordinary courage and resourcefulness. Kelly is by no means the type of hero who stands brooding on the bridge, tormented by self-doubts. He is an extrovert with the vitality and drive of a Cunningham, and as drawn to the sound of guns as a Keyes or a Cowan: a man with a sense of honour and a sense of humour, very much master of his fate and captain of his soul, a man clearly destined from early age for high rank. He also has a great ability to attract devotion from the ladies, and an equally great ability for getting out of scrapes. In the first pages of the book, at the Coronation Review of 1911, he saves a man from drowning and thereby is saved from the fury of an admiral; from then onwards the reader knows that here we have a brave and skilful sailor who is about to embark on a career in one of the most splendid periods of the Royal Navy's history.
The book's grand finale is at the Battle of Jutland. By then Kelly Maguire has developed from a lively if foolhardy midshipman into a very able officer. As he began to find his feet in the Navy, he served in armoured cruisers, submarines, and finally destroyers. During the course of the War he had found himself stranded ashore in besieged Antwerp and had become a prisoner of the Turks after Gallipoli.
In spite of the occasional romantic encounter (one with an exceedingly beautiful Arab princess) he was supported throughout by the devotion of his girlfriend and the implacable enmity of James Verschoyle, who matched him in skill and rank.
This is a book with the smell and sound of the ocean. It could only have been written by an author who had himself seen active service at sea. We are shown the controversy that rent the Navy during and after the reign of Admiral Fisher, the doubts that sprang from the first disasters of World War I, and the awe with which the Navy was held in the days when the German Kaiser was disputing the command of the seas. It is the world of those now half-forgotten great grey ships which contributed so much to the dignity of the British Empire and the strength of the Pax Britannica. THE LION AT SEA will be followed by two other volumes featuring the further adventures of Kelly Maguire. It is a spellbinding, gripping achievement.
Max Hennessy is a new pseudonym for John Harris, author of The Sea Shall Not Have Them, etc. Ex-sailor, ex- airman, ex-newspaperman, ex-travel courier, he went to sea before the war from his job as a newspaperman, going into the Merchant Navy and doing his first trip in the Windjammer, Lawhill. During the war he served with two air forces and two navies, was twice reported lost at sea, and had to swim for his life on more than one occasion. He returned to newspapers after the war but is now a full-time writer. He lives by the sea and for many years kept up his interest in flying with a private pilot's licence,
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