Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94232 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'His descriptions of the battle itself, and of the personalities of those who engaged in it, are seamanlike, assured and informative' Independent 'The story of the battle has been told before, but rarely with the literary aplomb and almost cinematic realism that are to be found in Adam Nicolson's new book.' Sunday Telegraph 'Argued with vigour and written with grace, this is an illuminating piece of interpretive cultural history' Sunday Times 'Vividly clear ! Vibrant ! Compelling' Observer 'Nicolson does not aim (to give)a blow-by-blow account of the battle. Instead he takes a philosophical and literary approach ! In this he succeeds exceptionally well' Independent on Sunday 'Sparkling ! Adam Nicolson's account of Trafalgar is majestic, poetic and, at base, authentic.' Literary Review 'Of the hundreds of books written about Nelson and Trafalgar over the past two centuries, perhaps a dozen will be worth re-reading at the tercentenary. This is one of them' Spectator 'Of the many books marking the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, Adam Nicolson's can claim to be one of the most original' The Week 'Strikingly original ! Mr. Nicolson brings to life superbly the horror, devastation and gore of Trafalgar' Economist 'As the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar approaches, a tsunami of Nelson books can be expected, but few will be more thought-provoking than this one ! Mr. Nicolson brilliantly characterises each navy -- British, French, Spanish -- as an expression of the countries to which they belonged. The picture is vivid' Country Life Praise for Adam Nicolson and his books: 'Nicolson writes so well, with such modesty and deep feeling, that the book fairly sings in your hands.' Daily Telegraph 'Exceptionally well done, beautifully written, personal yet panoramic' Observer 'An extraordinarily outward-looking book! a truly passionate attention to detail!. A love-letter no one else could hope to write so well.' Sunday Telegraph 'A passionate evocation, a compression of observation and anecdote which catches you up in its intelligence as well as its enthusiasm, and fill you with homesickness for a place you've never been to.' Daily Telegraph 'Generous, exuberant and a vividly written narrative!. history, travel-writing and memoir of the best sort.' Spectator 'Sharply observed, a finely written work, one to be savoured, turned over and over like a good whisky.' Sunday Times

Sunday Times
'Imaginatively structured...this is the best book to come out of last year's Trafalgar anniversary.'

Daily Telegraph
'...a visceral, informed and utterly compelling account of what drives men to kill.'

Customer Reviews

The fighting spirit of the British Navy
There are exceedingly few circumstances when anyone would hear me excuse violence, abusive or anti-social behaviour such as that sort of activity so aptly described as 'lager louts at play'. So why am I reluctantly coming to a viewpoint which states that this sort of behaviour, ranging from football hooliganism to drunken violence, whilst not condoning the very idea, at the very least is to be understood, especially from the British! The argument, laid out very plausibly in a book named 'Men of Honour' with the subtitle 'Trafalgar and the making of the English Hero' is that we have a built-in predilection, almost at a genetic level, for ferocious violence; and it was primarily because of this predilection that the British Navy was so successful over such a long period of time. A time when men, not machinery, determined the outcome of battle; and the more ruthless the man leading the ruthless placed in his command, the more sweeping the victory! The portrait painted of Nelson as a ruthless tactical genius is not new, but what is new in this sweeping account of the days before and during the battle, which commenced the long countdown to the fall of the bloodthirsty Napoleon Bonaparte is the detail of the carnage resultant from the orders given by the little Admiral!

The account of the ruthless actions taken by the Pitt Government to stem and curb any notion of republican fervour was new to this reviewer, but the stern requirements of the British public that defeat was unacceptable was not, as the swift trial and execution of Admiral Byng for cowardice showed. The Admiralty and the Government knew almost to the letter what was expected of British naval officers by the 'knowledgeable crowd', and had to obey the unwritten rule that stated 'Surrender was acceptable, but only after the British blood and body-count was agreeable!' So when Nelson's orders stated, "England expects" he was only re-iterating what every naval officer had learnt as a Midshipman, that the enemy was there to die for his country, and the duty of every British seaman and officer was to ensure that they did die, or die themselves!

The author, when describing the composition of the three great fleets is complimentary in small terms of the French, derisory of the Spanish, and surgically praises the British; for it was the seamanship of the British Fleet, their willingness to go the extra mile in terms of training, of a readiness to do battle with anyone; their known edge in sailing practice, especially since the British Fleets had been at sea for months without surcease. Bur his ultimate praise is reserved for the psyche of the ruling mind of the half-blind, crippled, sickly and superbly victorious Admiral Horatio Nelson, for without the knowledge that they would be letting him down, Trafalgar might have had a very different outcome! His book, "Men of Honour", which could have been a dry, dusty tome, unread except by a few naval scholars, is in fact a book which grips and holds it's readers with the knots learnt by sailors, draws them along the routes planned by the navigators of the British Fleets, and finally shows them that the huge scale of the French and Spanish defeat, on both ships lost and casualties, was due to the fighting spirit of the British Navy, who knew that they were better than anyone else afloat!

Not your average Nelson book
If you are looking for a single-minded blow by blow account of the battle of Trafalgar, this isn't it. The battle itself is the background to a far weightier and all encompassing subject - the English psyche and what made the English so dominant in the 1800's.
Don't be put off by this though - Nicolson deals with his subject with verve and enthusiasm. There is a host of interesting snippets and asides that make for a fascinating read. This is a book for Nelson buffs and those with a general interest in history both.

Interesting, but partial
This is not a bad book, but I feel all the five star reviews are being a little generous to a work which is more like a commentary on the battle rather than a study of one of the most significant moments of the Napoleonic Wars. Nicolson uses the battle as a backdrop to make challenging points about the English - predominantly - psyche and the complex relationships on Nelson's warships, which are reflective of both early nineteenth century social and psychological motivations and have resonances today.

This is fine, but the battle itself - sometimes - fades to the background. The strategic significance of the cross- Atlantic 'feint'; the reasons why the French admirals disobeyed Napoleon's ostensibly brilliant strategy to clear the channel; the fact that Napoleon had abandoned the idea of invasion before the attempted break-out from Cadiz - all of these areas get a little lost, I feel, in detailed examinations of concepts like 'honour' and 'love.' The book feels a bit like a number of essays rather than a standard military history, which is fine, but not what a lot of people will want from a work about this astonishing battle. I guess I just wanted more on what types of guns they were using and found it a little infuriating when facts about navigation are chucked away in a sentence while concepts of 'duty' - which one may or may not agree about, them being of an almost meta-physical nature - get several pages. Sometimes, also, I feel the writing was designed to impress rather than inform. Roy Adkin's 'Trafalgar - biography of a Battle' is a far more accessible and comprehensive work for readers who want the nuts and bolts of the encounter.

I am not not advocating a utilitarian approach to military history, but I do prefer works that allow the 'philosophy' to come organically from the narrative, like Massie's 'Castles of Steel' about World War One naval operations or Macpherson's 'Battle Cry of Freedom' about the American Civil War.