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You are here: Home > Fiction > Historical Fiction > By the Mast Divided > Review

Author: David Donachie

Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780749082604
Pages: 288
Rights: World
Pub. Date: 2005-09-26

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Price: £7.99

Format: Paperback

Recommend this book

Firebrand John Pearce's first adventure on the high seas.

London 1793: Young firebrand John Pearce is illegally press-ganged from the refuge of the Pelican tavern to a brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on its way to war. In the first few days Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. But he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men - fly Charlie Taverner; quiet Ben Walker; tired old Abel Scrivens; the bairn of the group, Rufus Dommet; the droll, tough Irish labourer, Michael O'Hagan; and the bumptious Gherson - pressed men like him, who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader. During an action-packed two weeks, as HMS Brilliant chases a French privateer across the English Channel, this disparate group of men form friendships that will last a lifetime. 

David Donachie cleverly weaves these fictional characters into true historical situations to produce a compelling and utterly absorbing introductory novel.