About this item
"1794. In the wake of the Glorious First of June, an equivocal success for the British naval fleet against the French Revolutionary forces, Lieutenant John Pearce has pressing matters to attend to. He must undertake an urgent commission from Lord Hood, track down Midshipman Toby Burns, and placate Emily Barclay who, estranged from her husband, is now under Pearce's protection. Meanwhile, smugglers whose ship Pearce inadvertently stole are on his tail, determined to get their money or kill him in revenge -- possibly both. And it is not only John Pearce who has his fair share of trouble. The triumphant Channel Fleet returns, with Ralph Barclay limping from a musket ball in the thigh, Cornelius Gherson fuming at the jokes about his cowardice, and bully-boy Devenow sporting a wounded shoulder and a cauliflower ear. But the battle is already the subject of controversy -- both the French and British claim victory, and Barclay is accused of holding back from the action. Pearce turns the tables on his enemies with the aid of his crew, conjures up a trick to free his friends and sets off for the Mediterranean with Emily Barclay. He must fight a ferocious sea battle on the way to aid an old friend, and can only hope that his troubles will end along with his mission. But are they only just beginning?"--Jacket. Read more...
About the Author
DAVID DONACHIE
I was born in Edinburgh in 1944. My father was serving in the Royal Air Force and I suspect that my conception was due to an senior officer's love of fresh salmon. A despatch rider, my Pa was sent from Inverness to Edinburgh with a freshly caught fish for onward transmission to a fellow called Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, who was entertaining General Eisenhower to dinner. Since Pa also had a 24-hour pass and 9 months later ... the rest you can imagine.
Had the chance of a decent education, but boredom helped me throw it away, leaving school aged 14 years with no qualifications but an abiding love of history. The blurb on my first book jackets said that since then I have had more jobs than birthdays, which was true until output caught up with me; decorator, salesman, truck driver, ice-cream vendor, cleaner, packer, theatre worker, entrepreneur who launched a dozen projects and never made much of any of them.
Some of it has been exciting, most not. Painting Sean Connery's mother's flat when he came back to Edinburgh after making From Russia With Love, which I am sure pricked my ambition, like him, to do something different. Working in the theatre alongside - and it is in a good theatre - Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness and Peter Ustinov, Rudolf Nureyev and dozens of names recognized worldwide. Selling Ice Cream - and making good money - while bands like the Who, Cream and the Stones played at the Roundhouse in London. The best gig for sales - obvious really - was Oh! Calcutta.
Once asked by a radio interviewer; why I had become a writer, my reply was honest. I said, "Desperation. I've tried everything else."
In truth my first novel came by accident. I sat down to write a radio play for a BBC competition and ended up six weeks later with a 400-page novel. That got an offer from a major publisher- £3000 - half up front but I was far from impressed having painted someone's flat the week before for £1600 cash. Thanks to an agent's advice - he thought we could do better - I turned it down and the novel was sent round to all the London Publishers and it fell flat. They didn't want it and neither did the rather annoyed editor who had originally offered. That book has never been published, so I turned down an offer for my first novel,which generally makes other writers shake their heads and look for a polite way to say idiot.
The agent's plan backfired bit I don't blame him - if you take the advice you are responsible. It took that experience to teach me that I could write and to trust my imagination. It spurred me on so I can now list 42 published novels, (Inc.Ghosting) and there are more in the pipe under my own name and the pen names Jack Ludlow and Tom Connery.
It has been far from plain sailing having been with four different publishers. As writer you can suffer from takeovers, changes of managem
