Sailor of Liberty, the first book in my new series set in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, was published by Canelo in January 2023 in both hardback and e-book formats. Details of this can be found elsewhere on this site, on Amazon and Canelo’s websites, etc. It’s the first of at least three books set in this period, with the second due for publication in October. Further details will be revealed here as soon as possible, but I can exclusively reveal that the draft is now complete and will be going off to the publisher within the next couple of weeks!
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May is going to be a busy month for me. On the weekend of the 12th-13th I’ll be in Norwich to attend the conference linked to the Gloucester project, the fantastic discovery of a shipwreck that sank in 1682 and which very nearly changed the course of British history. On the following Tuesday, the 16th, I’ll be speaking alongside Professor Andrew Lambert in a seminar about aspects of the Gloucester‘s story. Details of the project and associated events can be found here. Then just over a week later I’m delivering the opening remarks at the conference in Liverpool marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic.
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Since 2020 I have been the chairman of the Society for Nautical Research, the oldest and most august organisation in the field. As well as publishing the eminent peer-reviewed journal The Mariner’s Mirror, the Society was largely responsible for saving HMS Victory and for founding the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
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I’m often asked if and when a new Matthew Quinton book will see the light of day. The good news is that I used the first lockdown of 2020 to finish the latest story in the series, in which Matthew goes to the Caribbean and encounters Captain Henry Morgan. The slightly less good news is that I can’t yet announce a publication date – it looks as though I’ll have to self-publish this title, which will be a new experience for me, so I’m not sure how long it will take (and it will obviously have to be fitted in around other commitments, which are currently pretty heavy). I’ll keep you posted!
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I’m currently completing work on my long-delayed book on the Stepney family, baronets of Llanelly House. I’d hoped to publish that by now but it’s been pushed back, initially by the impact of the pandemic and then by the deadlines for the new Kermorvant series – watch this space, but in the meantime, go to the ‘Future Projects’ page on this site for further information!