Destiny’s Tide, the first in my new trilogy of naval historical novels set in the Tudor period, was published by the lovely people at Canelo on 27 June! You can buy it here. There’s lots of information about it both over on the home page of this site and on my blog, and I’m delighted to say that it’s already got one five star review on Amazon – moreover, from someone who knows the subject area intimately, namely Hugh Bicheno, author of Elizabeth’s Sea Dogs. I’m now hard at work on the second book, continuing the adventures of Jack Stannard of the Navy Royal.
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I recently spoke at the Historical Novel Society North America conference at the Gaylord Resort, Maryland (on the outskirts of Washington DC), where I shared a platform with the eminent author Jeff Shaara, of Gods and Generals fame, discussing ‘The Way of the Warrior’; I’ve blogged about it here. I’m delivering academic papers at Bangor University in July, and in both Rostock (Germany) and Vlaardingen (The Netherlands) in September.
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I’m one of the co-organisers of a conference being held at Brunel’s SS Great Britain in Bristol on 6-7 September. Entitled Connecting the Oceans: the Impact of Global Steam in the Nineteenth Century, this is an event organised jointly by SSGB and the Society for Nautical Research, marking the fiftieth anniversary of SNR’s central role in the saving of the ship and its return to Britain. Registration for the conference is now open, and tickets can be booked here, where further details of the event can also be found.
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The current situation with regard to the publication and availability of my fiction is a little complicated, so I’ve covered it in detail in a post on my blog. Please check that for further information!
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My current non-fiction project is as the co-editor of a book on naval ideology, 1500-1815, along with Alan James and Gijs Rommelse. I’m contributing the chapter on the seventeenth century Royal Navy. I’m also completing work on my long-delayed book on the Stepney family, baronets of Llanelly House, and hope to publish this some time in 2019-20 – watch this space, but in the meantime, go to the ‘Future Projects’ page on this site for further information!
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Those with an interest in the late seventeenth century Royal Navy might be interested to know that there’s a research group investigating the history of the Stuart royal yachts, and that it has a website, to which further information will eventually be added – www.syrg.org.uk. The group can be contacted via info@syrg.org.uk. I’m hoping to have a guest blog about the work of the group on this site in the near future.
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Finally, a quick plug for the first book by my ‘significant other’ Wendy Berliner, the ‘LadyQJ’ of my Twitter feed! Titled Great Minds and How to Grow Them: High Performance Learning, this went immediately into the Amazon bestseller lists on the back of her Guardian article, which summarises the main arguments of the book.