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Author

Alexander Kent

28 fiction

Alexander Kent was the pen name of British naval novelist Douglas Reeman (1924–2017). Reeman joined the Royal Navy at sixteen and served during the Second World War, experiences that informed his detailed portrayals of ships, combat and life at sea. He used his own name for novels set mainly in the twentieth century, while adopting the name Alexander Kent—after a childhood friend and fellow naval officer killed during the war—for his historical fiction about the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail.

Kent is best known for the long-running Bolitho series, launched with To Glory We Steer in 1968. The novels follow Richard Bolitho from his early service as a midshipman to senior command during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, before continuing the family story through his nephew Adam Bolitho. Books such as Richard Bolitho, Midshipman, Sloop of War, The Flag Captain, Command a King’s Ship and In the King’s Name combine naval battles, privateering and political conflict with the personal costs of command, loyalty and prolonged warfare.

Periods and events

Abolition Movement in Britain1787–1833 CE American Revolutionary War1775–1783 CE Barbary Corsairs and Mediterranean Captivityc. 1450–1830 CE Battle of the Nile1798-08-01–1798-08-03 Battle of Trafalgar1805-10-21 British Colonisation of the South Pacificlate 18th–19th centuries British Conquest of the Cape Colony1806 CE Caribbean Campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars1793–1802 CE Caribbean Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars1803–1815 CE East India Company Ascendancy1757–1833 CE Georgian Empire and Atlantic World1714–1837 CE Hundred Days / War of the Seventh Coalition1815 CE Peace of Amiens1802–1803 CE Royal Navy in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars1793–1815 CE Smuggling on the Georgian Coast1714–1830 CE War of 18121812–1815 CE War of the First Coalition1792–1797 CE War of the Second Coalition1798–1802 CE Waterloo Campaign1815-06

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Alexander Kent (1 series)

Richard Bolitho in Order

by Alexander Kent 28 books 4.5(44,733)

The Richard Bolitho novels follow a Cornish Royal Navy officer from his years as a midshipman in 1772 through the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812. Richard rises from junior officer to admiral while the series examines command, discipline, loyalty…

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