As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate disclosure.

Home / Authors / Richard Woodman

Author

Richard Woodman

37 fiction · 29 non-fiction

Richard Woodman (1944–2024) was a British master mariner, naval historian and novelist whose long career at sea gave his fiction unusual technical authority. He entered the Merchant Navy at sixteen, trained aboard cargo liners and later served with the Ocean Weather Service and Trinity House, eventually commanding the lighthouse tender Patricia. After retiring from seafaring in 1997, he wrote full-time, producing maritime novels as well as substantial histories of the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy and the East India Company.

Woodman is best known for the fourteen Nathaniel Drinkwater novels, beginning with An Eye of the Fleet. The series follows Drinkwater’s career in the Royal Navy from the American Revolutionary War through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, placing him amid naval battles, espionage, convoy duty and political intrigue. Books including A King’s Cutter, A Brig of War, The Bomb Vessel, 1805 and The Flying Squadron draw closely on real campaigns and demonstrate Woodman’s detailed knowledge of navigation, seamanship and combat under sail. He also wrote historical maritime novels outside the series, including Voyage East, and several works inspired by the history of the British merchant service.

Periods and events

American Revolutionary Era1763–1783 CE American Revolutionary War1775–1783 CE Angevin Empire1154–1214 CE Battle of France and Dunkirk EvacuationMay–June 1940 CE Battle of Poitiers1356 CE Battle of the Atlantic1939–1945 Battle of the Somme1916 CE Battle of Trafalgar1805-10-21 Bourbon Restoration in France1814–1830 CE Cold War and Post-war Era1945–present Commonwealth and Protectorate1649–1660 CE Early People’s Republic of China1949–1966 CE Early Victorian Britain1837–1851 CE East India Company Ascendancy1757–1833 CE Edwardian Era1901–1914 CE Egyptian Campaign1798–1801 CE English Civil War1642–1651 CE First Barons’ War1215–1217 CE Georgian Empire and Atlantic World1714–1837 CE German Spring Offensive of 1918March–July 1918 CE Great Plague of London1665–1666 CE Gunboat War1807–1814 CE Industrial Revolution in Britain1760–1830 CE Interwar Period1918–1939 CE Italian Campaign of World War II1943–1945 Lancastrian England1399–1461 CE Magna Carta1215 CE Napoleonic Era1792–1815 CE North African Campaign1940–1943 CE Post-war Britain1945–1963 CE Restoration1660–1685 CE Royal Navy in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars1793–1815 CE Seven Years’ War1756–1763 CE Siege of Alesia52 BCE Spanish Armada1588 CE Stuart Period1603–1714 CE The Anarchy1135–1154 CE Third Crusade1189–1192 CE Victorian & Edwardian Britain1837–1914 CE Victorian Era1837–1901 CE War of 18121812–1815 CE War of the Second Coalition1798–1802 CE War of the Sixth Coalition1813–1814 CE Western Front1914–1918 CE World War I1914–1918 CE World War II1939–1945 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Richard Woodman (7 series)

Nathaniel Drinkwater in Order

by Richard Woodman 14 books 4.4(2,498)

The Nathaniel Drinkwater series follows a Royal Navy officer from his first service during the American Revolutionary War to a final mission in early Victorian Britain. Drinkwater rises from vulnerable midshipman to experienced captain while operating across the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Baltic, Arctic, Pacific and China seas. The fourteen…

The William Marshal in Order

by Richard Woodman 3 books 4.2(1,700)

The William Marshal trilogy fictionalises the life of the celebrated knight and regent from his childhood during the Anarchy to his final defence of the young Henry III. It follows Marshal through tournaments, service to Henry II and Richard I, the Third Crusade, King John’s loss of Normandy…

Sword of State in Order

by Richard Woodman 3 books 4.2(439)

The Sword of State trilogy fictionalises the career of George Monck, the soldier and naval commander whose shifting service helped carry England from civil war through the Commonwealth to the Restoration. The novels follow Monck from imprisonment and divided loyalty to campaigns in Ireland and Scotland, war with…

Tales of the Sea in Order

by Richard Woodman 6 books 4.1(991)

Tales of the Sea brings together novellas and short fiction drawn from twentieth-century merchant shipping. The stories range from Arctic exploration and wartime Atlantic convoys to the China coast, Hong Kong, North Atlantic weather ships and the decline of Britain’s traditional merchant fleet. Rather than following one continuous…

James Dunbar in Order

by Richard Woodman 2 books 4.1(282)

The James Dunbar novels follow an idealistic Edwardian merchant seaman whose voyages force him to test romantic ideas about art, love and the sea against exploitation, violence and physical hardship. Dunbar begins as an inexperienced young man seeking adventure and gradually develops an artistic identity shaped by the…

The William Kite Naval Adventures in Order

by Richard Woodman 3 books 4.0(2,721)

The William Kite Naval Adventures follow a fugitive who enters the Atlantic slave trade and gradually becomes a Liverpool shipowner, surgeon and fighting seaman. His voyages carry him between West Africa, the Caribbean, Britain and the Indian Ocean during the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolutionary War.…

Kit Faulkner Naval Adventures in Order

by Richard Woodman 3 books 4.0(1,704)

The Kit Faulkner Naval Adventures follow an orphan raised in the maritime world of Bristol who becomes a merchant captain as Stuart England moves towards civil war. Kit’s professional rise draws him into piracy, privateering, royal service and the struggle between Crown and Parliament. The trilogy carries Faulkner…

Historical fiction

Standalone historical fiction by Richard Woodman (3 books)

Ranked by rating and voting volume.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction by Richard Woodman (29 books)

Reference works, biographies and other non-fiction are kept separate from the historical fiction above.

Discover more

Similar authors

Recommended from shared genres and periods.