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Author

Max Hennessy

1916–1991

Max Hennessy was a pen name used by British novelist John Harris, who was born in 1916 and died in 1991. Harris worked as a sailor, journalist, cartoonist and teacher and served in the naval and air forces during the Second World War. These experiences informed the technical detail and physical immediacy of his military fiction. He wrote more than eighty works under his own name and the pseudonyms Max Hennessy and Mark Hebden, using the latter for the Inspector Pel crime series.

Writing as Max Hennessy, Harris produced several multigenerational military-adventure sequences. The Captain Kelly Maguire trilogy—The Lion at Sea, The Dangerous Years and Back to Battle—follows a naval officer through the conflicts and political changes of the early twentieth century. The Goff Family novels trace successive soldiers through British imperial warfare, while the RAF Trilogy, beginning with The Bright Blue Sky, follows pilot Dicken Quinney from the pioneering days of military aviation into later aerial conflict. Hennessy’s novels combine naval warfare, cavalry campaigning and aviation history with family loyalty, professional ambition and the personal cost of prolonged military service.

Periods and events

World War II Second Boer War World War I Mahdist War World War I Air War D-Day and Normandy Campaign Russian Civil War Warlord Era in China Interwar Period French Resistance German Occupation of France North African Campaign Italian Campaign of World War II Crimean War

Series

Series by Max Hennessy (11 series)

Goff Family War Thrillers in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.4

The Goff Family War Thrillers form a three-volume military family saga spanning the Crimean War, the high Victorian empire, the First World War and the Second World War. Successive generations serve the same cavalry tradition even as horses and lances give way to machine guns, armoured vehicles and…

Soldier of the Queen

4.3

Blunted Lance

4.5

The Iron Stallions

4.5

Captain Kelly Maguire Trilogy in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.4

The Captain Kelly Maguire trilogy follows an ambitious Royal Navy officer from the opening campaigns of the First World War to the decisive operations of the Second. Maguire’s career takes him through Gallipoli, Jutland, the Russian Civil War, naval intervention in China, Narvik, Dunkirk and the Normandy campaign.…

The Lion at Sea

4.4

The Dangerous Years

4.4

Back to Battle

4.5

Martin Falconer Thrillers in Order

by Max Hennessy 5 books 4.3

The Martin Falconer Thrillers follow a young British aviator from the first experimental years of aerial combat through the political violence that followed the First World War. Falconer flies over the Western Front, returns to battle during the Russian Civil War and ends the sequence amid revolutionary fighting…

The Fledglings

4.3

The Professionals

4.4

The Victors

4.4

The Interceptors

4.2

The Revolutionaries

4.3

WWII Naval Thrillers in Order

by Max Hennessy 4 books 4.2

The WWII Naval Thrillers are four independent sea and coastal war novels arranged around survival, evacuation, resistance and intelligence. They cover an aircrew adrift in the North Sea, the Dunkirk evacuation, clandestine support for Greek resistance and naval espionage before the German invasion of Norway. The collection uses…

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

4.0

Ride Out the Storm

Cotton’s War

4.4

North Strike

4.4

The WWII Collection in Order

by Max Hennessy 4 books 4.3

The WWII Collection contains four standalone combat and espionage thrillers set in distinct theatres of the Second World War. The novels range from a desert commando raid and resistance warfare in occupied France to the hunt for stolen D-Day plans and the battle for Monte Cassino. Each book…

Take or Destroy

4.2

Army of Shadows

4.3

The Fox from His Lair

4.4

Swordpoint

4.3

RAF Trilogy in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.3

The RAF Trilogy charts Dicken Quinney’s life as a fighter pilot from the improvised air war of 1914–1918 to the opening of the Second World War. His service includes combat over France and Italy, intervention against Bolshevik forces around the Baltic and a final escape across Nazi-controlled Europe.…

The Bright Blue Sky

4.3

The Challenging Heights

4.3

Once More the Hawks

4.4

Flying Ace Thrillers in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.2

The Flying Ace Thrillers follow pilot Ira Penaluna from the air war over the Western Front into the unstable aviation world of the interwar years. After surviving the First World War, he becomes involved with a Chinese warlord’s air force and later attempts a dangerous transatlantic flight with…

The Mustering of the Hawks

4.3

The Mercenaries

4.1

The Courtney Entry

4.4

Shadows of War Collection in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.1

The Shadows of War Collection groups three independent thrillers about the long reach of twentieth-century conflict. The stories move from a post-war treasure hunt in the Sahara to suspected Nazi sabotage in Sierra Leone and an intelligence mission in occupied France. Although the novels do not share characters,…

The Old Trade of Killing

3.9

A Funny Place to Hold a War

4.1

Flawed Banner

4.3

WWII Italian Collection in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.2

The WWII Italian Collection groups three independent adventures connected with Italian forces, territories and the Mediterranean war. The books move from the invasion of British Somaliland to black-market survival in North Africa and the struggle to protect works of art in wartime Naples. The collection balances front-line action…

Harkaway’s Sixth Column

4.1

Up for Grabs

4.3

Picture of Defeat

4.3

The By Air, By Land, By Sea Collection in Order

by Max Hennessy 3 books 4.1

The By Air, By Land, By Sea Collection brings together three independent military novels linked by different forms of wartime movement. The Lonely Voyage follows a young seaman whose life converges on Dunkirk, Light Cavalry Action reconstructs a disputed mounted charge during the Russian Civil War, and The…

The Lonely Voyage

4.1

Light Cavalry Action

4.3

The Thirty Days’ War

4.1

Boer War Duology in Order

by Max Hennessy 2 books 3.8

The Boer War Duology brings together two South African military adventures separated by more than a decade. The Fleeing Tiger follows the aftermath of the Second Boer War through a stolen army payroll and a prolonged pursuit, while Sunset at Sheba moves to the Boer rebellion of 1914…