Ben Wilson

The Calm and The Storm

Nelson: The Sword of Albion

By

The Bodley Head 1,020pp £30 order from our bookshop

At midnight on 16 August 1801, boats from Nelson’s squadron launched a daring attack on Napoleon’s invasion flotilla at Boulogne. The plan depended upon surprise, however, and when the British were spotted, the Royal Navy’s officers and men were mown down by the French shore batteries. The boats returned to Nelson badly mauled and stained with blood. 

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'The characters in many of these stories are trapped in the obsessive present tense of their own thoughts; in the m… ,
    • 'Libraries, for much of their existence, have embodied in microcosm many of the characteristics of the totalitarian… ,
    • 'Moss and Cynthia buy several properties through which to launder their ill-gotten gains, take lots of drugs, have… ,
    • 'Never mind the imperial cult. This is the cult of Boris. What happened to Rome?' From the LR archive:… ,
    • Thirty-two years ago this month, we published Muriel Spark's short story, 'A Playhouse Called Remarkable' Read it… ,
    • Time travel, bicycles and white horses populate @WomackPhilip's roundup of children's books by @marcussedgwick,… ,
    • RT : Joanna Kavenna’s ‘Cooking with Trotsky’s Frying Pan’ in June’s is the most well written and interesting… ,
    Follow Us