Book 1483

The Hundred Days

by Patrick O'Brian

Published 7 September 1998

‘You are in for the treat of your lives. Thank God for Patrick O’Brian: his genius illuminates the literature of the English language, and lightens the lives of those who read him.’ Kevin Myers, Irish Times

The Hundred Days is the long-awaited nineteenth novel in Patrick O’Brian’s best-selling series of Aubrey–Maturin tales. Following the extraordinary success of The Yellow Admiral, The Hundred Days is set in the days succeeding Napoleon’s escape from Elba. Aubrey and Maturin are in the thick of Europe’s attempt to prevent the French emperor from regaining his power; it is a novel enriched with huge excitement, action and grand naval battles. It is O’Brian at his best.


Book 1669

Blue at the Mizzen

by Patrick O'Brian

Published 1 January 1999

The brand new Aubrey-Maturin novel, the twentieth in this classic series.

'If we had only two or three of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, we would count ourselves lucky; with six or seven the author would be safely among the greats of historical fiction... This is great writing by an undiminished talent. Now on to Volume Twenty, and the liberation of Chile.' WILLIAM WALDEGRAVE, Literary Review

This is the twentieth book in Patrick O'Brian's highly acclaimed, bestselling series chronicling the adventures of lucky Jack Aubrey and his best friend Stephen Maturin, part ship's doctor, part secret agent. The novel's stirring action follows on from that of The Hundred Days. Napoleon's hundred days of freedom and his renewed threat to Europe have ended at Waterloo and Aubrey has finally, as the title suggests, become a blue level admiral. He and Maturin have - at last - set sail on their much postponed mission to Chile. Vivid with the salty tang of life at sea, O'Brian's writing is as powerful as ever whether he writes of naval hierarchies, night-actions or the most celebrated fictional friendship since that of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Blue at the Mizzen also brings alive the sights and sounds of revolutionary South America in a story as exciting as any O'Brian has written.