England. 1800s. The family of a young Royal Navy officer killed in action on a mission to capture a French privateer in 1798 install a memorial tablet in their church to commemorate his life and service to King and country. Lieutenant Oliver Anson, a distant relative of the illustrious circumnavigator George Anson and the younger son of a Kent clergyman, led the raid bidding to capture the gun brig Égalité hiding in a small Normandy harbour. But when it all goes wrong, Anson is felled by a musket ball in the head and is among the dead and wounded left ashore after his shipmates seek the refuge of their ship HMS Phryne. Only – and despite official newspaper reports to the contrary – the less-than-god-fearing Anson turns out not to be dead at all but very much alive, and stuns even fellow seamen with his miraculous resurrection. It is, however, far from plain sailing for the prisoners to escape from behind enemy lines and get back across the Channel. And the resourceful and ambitious Anson is then dealt a hammer blow by the admiralty when he is later denied a new sea-going appointment. Instead his future is to be an unattractive-looking, land-based role with the Sea Fencibles – tasked with foiling any potential French invasion attempt along the Kent coastline. Perhaps worse, sea rover Anson finds himself falling into the clutches of a local bigwig’s voluptuous and determined daughter who is desperate to find a husband… The Normandy Privateer charts the ups and downs of Lieutenant Anson and shines a poignant light on the loneliness and responsibilities of command. ‘An enlightening historical thriller.’ – Thomas Waugh David McDine OBE, is a former Deputy Lieutenant of Kent and a former Royal Navy Reserve officer and Admiralty information officer. He is also the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy. The Five Horseshoes, his debut novel in the Animal Man series, is sure to appeal to fans of Tom Sharpe, Alexander McCall Smith, PG Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh.

Red flags flutter at the mastheads of the Channel Fleet ships gathered at the Spithead anchorage. It is 1797, and unrest is spreading – to Plymouth, backdrop to Francis Drake’s Armada heroics two centuries earlier, and to the Nore, the great anchorage at the gateway to London. For the downtrodden sailors whose pay has not been increased for a hundred years it is time to strike for better pay and conditions. But, according to the Articles of War, akin to holy writ on board His Majesty’s ships, it is mutiny. And at a time when Britain is at war with Revolutionary France and threatened with invasion, the nation is plunged into grave peril. Young Lieutenant Oliver Anson is awaiting transfer to duties aboard a frigate in the Mediterranean. Any ideas of idleness while he waits are swept aside when he is ordered to travel to Portsmouth on a mysterious mission. What are the contents of the papers he is to deliver personally to the flag officer there? Who among his fellow travellers on the express Royal Mail coach would try to steal them? How can he survive a more dangerous attack after being despatched to the Nore on a further secret assignment? David McDine’s Strike the Red Flag skilfully uses actual events in the Royal Navy’s history as the backdrop to some great swashbuckling fiction which remains true to social history,while examining the idea of duty. His knowledge and evocation of the period is impressive, and his pitch-perfect phrasing recreates a fascinating world now lost to us. David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy . He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, of which Strike the Red Flag is a prequel.

Dead Man’s Island in the rain was as God-forsaken a place as you could find anywhere on earth. Following the successful capture of the Normandy privateer Égalité, Lieutenant Oliver Anson is appointed by Commodore Home Popham to command the Seagate Sea Fencibles. Moreover, the Commodore has implied that there may be a clandestine nature to Anson’s new duties... However, when the Commodore summons Anson to Dead Man’s Island, it is to find the Commodore absent. Forgoing any explanation, Anson is required to witness the funeral of a Frenchman from a hulk. Hoping that Captain Matthew Wills will be able to provide some explanation as to his being there, Anson is only further mystified when Wills arranges for the Lieutenant to visit the hulk of the officer whose funeral he has just attended. With promises that the full picture shall soon reveal itself, the lieutenant embarks once more. David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy . He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, and the series prequel Strike the Red Flag .

The nineteenth century has just begun, but it has not arrived quietly. At least, not on the high seas, where Lieutenant Oliver Anson and his comrades have been fighting the Napoleonic Wars. A tenuous peace finds them enjoying some respite. And for Oliver, there are matters of the heart to be resolved back at home. But nobody is taking anything for granted. Which is how Anson and his friends, including the rakish French aristocrat Hurel, find themselves undertaking clandestine work in France, just as the peace begins to falter and the threat level rapidly rises. A Stormy Peace is a meticulously-researched and highly engaging book. A must-read for fans of naval and maritime stories. David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy . He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, of which Strike the Red Flag is a prequel.