The Pursuit of Victory : The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson - Hardcover

Roger Knight

4.19

308 ratings by Goodreads

9780713996197: The Pursuit of Victory : The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713996196 ISBN 13: 9780713996197

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2005

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The starting point of Roger Knight's magnificent new biography is to explain how Nelson achieved such extraordinary success. Knight places him firmly in the context of the Royal Navy of the time. He analyses Nelson's more obvious qualities, his leadership strengths and his coolness and certainty in battle, and also explores his strategic grasp, the condition of his ships, the skill of his seamen and his relationships with the officers around him - including those who could hardly be called friendly.

This biography takes a cool look at Nelson's status as a hero and demolishes many of the myths that were so carefully established by the early authors, and repeated by their modern successors. Nelson was a shrewd political operator who charmed and impressed political leaders and whose advancement was helped by the relatively weak generation of admirals above him. He was a difficult subordinate, only happy when completely in command, and capable of great ruthlessness. He was flawed, but brilliant - and not to be crossed.

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Review:

My prayers have been answered with Roger Knight's The Pursuit of Victory. -- Flora Fraser, The Daily Telegraph

Probably the best single-volume Life that we are ever likely to see. -- Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Guardian

About the Author:

Roger Knight was Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum until 2000, and now teaches at the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich. His previous books for Allen Lane/Penguin are The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, which won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military History, the Mountbatten Award and the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research, and Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory, 1793-1815.

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