Showing results by narrator "Michael Jayston" in All Categories

As the French enter the American War of Independence, young Richard Bolitho is given command of the fast, well-armed sloop Sparrow. He has a chance to prove his ability, but danger threatens - as real and deadly as the enemy itself.

The night manager is Jonathan, a veteran of clandestine operations. In flight from a failed marriage and his own past, he has taken refuge in the luxury hotel trade. Yet he finds no escape from his demons. Driven by a desire for atonement and by an inherited patriotism, Jonathan allows himself to be recruited as a British secret agent with a mission to expose the murderer of the woman he himself betrayed. His odyssey takes him across Britain and Canada to the Caribbean and the jungles of Panama. But there are more treacherous jungles still in Whitehall and Washington.

October 1772, Portsmouth. Sixteen-year-old Richard Bolitho waits to join the Gorgon, ordered to sail to the west coast of Africa and to destroy those who challenge the King's Navy. For Bolitho, and for many of the crew, it is a severe and testing initiation into the game of seamanship.

The Berlin Wall is down, the Cold War is over, but the world's second oldest profession is very much alive. Smiley accepts an invitation to dine with the eager young men and women of the Circus' latest intake; and over coffee and brandy, by flickering firelight, he beguilingly offers them his personal thoughts on espionage past, present, and future. In doing so, he prompts one of his former Circus colleagues into a searching examination of his own eventful secret life.

Harry Pendel is the charismatic proprietor of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada of Panama, through whose doors everyone who is anyone in Central America passes. Andrew Osnard, mysterious and fleshy, is a spy. His secret mission is two-pronged: to keep a watchful eye on the political manoeuvrings leading up to the American handover of the Panama Canal on 31st December 1999; and to secure for himself the immense private fortune that has until now churlishly eluded him.

April 1797, Falmouth Bay. As France continues her bitter struggle for supremacy on land and sea, the Royal Navy receives a crippling blow at home: the Great Mutiny. Returning home after eighteen months' continuous service, Flag Captain Richard Bolitho finds himself at the centre of the crisis. And his new commander, it seems, is a man who will brook no interference...

Spring 1792. A troubled peace with France means that even a frigate captain as famous as Richard Bolitho is forced to swallow his pride and visit the Admiralty daily to plead for a ship. But, as the clouds of war begin to rise once more over the Channel, all he is offered is command of three topsail cutters. His task is to track down deserters, but the 'Brotherhood' he comes up against are brutal and dangerous.

Returning to England after the dramatic capture of Martinique, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho attains an all too brief respite from war and politics. But the shadow of a new conflict already darkens the horizon. The old enemy, France, forges an uneasy alliance with America - threatening the safety of British trade routes. Although ordered immediately to the Indian Ocean, Bolitho’s thoughts are of his own - and the Navy’s - past. Both Nelson and Collingwood died in their country’s service.

As master of France, Napoleon now turns towards the East - and the vast wealth of India. But first he must secure the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Now Commodore of a newly-formed squadron in a British fleet stretched to the limit, Richard Bolitho faces one of the toughest commissions of his career: to ascertain the fighting strength of the French - then seek, find, and bring them to battle.

The gathering might of revolutionary France prepares to engulf Europe in another bloody war. As in the past, Britain will stand or fall by the fighting power of her fleet. For Richard Bolitho, the renewal of hostilities means a fresh command.

Plymouth, July 1801: Richard Bolitho's small squadron, still repairing battle scars earned in heavy action at Copenhagen, has been months away from the sea. But the Admiralty needs Bolitho. After eight years of war with France, Britain must make a gesture that will show her strength and determination - and one which will dramatically weaken the French cause. The Admiralty wants to attack, so Rear-Admiral Bolitho must follow his flag's tradition of victory.

It is 1811, and in this, the 22nd Richard Bolitho novel, Alexander Kent's sensitive and compassionate hero is recalled to duty after only two and a half months' peace in Cornwall with his beloved Catherine.

It is February 1813. With convoys from Canada and the Caribbean falling victim to American privateers, Sir Richard Bolitho returns to Halifax to pursue a war he knows will not be won, but which neither Britain nor the United States can afford to lose. England's youngest admiral desires only peace. But peace will not be found in the icy Canadian waters, where a young, angry nation asserts its identity and men who share a common heritage die in close and bloody action.

An audio dramatisation of July 1914 Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin.

In this short and intense period of the war, Churchill’s sense of history is profound. 'If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say this was its finest hour.' In this second volume, Britain stands alone in combat against the mortal threat posed to civilisation, liberal democracy, and human decency. Between May 1940 and January 1941, the world witnessed some of the most spectacular military victories of all time.

March 1814. Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho returns to England from several months' rigorous patrolling off the North American coast. War with the United States has not yet ended, but news of Napoleon's defeat and abdication has stunned a navy and a nation bled by years of European conflict. Victory has been the impossible dream, and now, for Bolitho, a vision of the future and a personal peace seems attainable. However, an unsympathetic Admiralty dispatches him to Malta.

Spring 1802. Richard Bolitho is summoned to the Admiralty to receive his orders for a difficult and thankless mission.... The recent Peace of Amiens is already showing signs of strain as old enemies wrangle over colonies won and lost during the war. In the little 64-gun Achates, Bolitho sails west for the Caribbean, to hand over the island of San Felipe to the French. But diplomacy is not enough.

Although the Grand Alliance was now in place, Churchill knew that it would take precious time before it would be able to effectively engage and subdue the enemy. Disaster was upon him almost at once. With the entrance of Japan into the global conflict, our Far East possessions were under immediate threat. Singapore and the Philippines fell. In Africa, Rommel took Tobruk. At sea, the loss of ships mounted. His task seemed ever greater, but his spirit, his resolve, his belief in his people's ability to overcome the terrible evil of Nazism was unshakeable.

As the Allies prepared for the Normandy invasion many war councils were held. At Teheran, the first of the Big Three conferences, decisive steps were taken to ensure this. Discussion was opened as to what shape and form the world would take after the defeat of the enemy. But with 185 divisions ranged against them the primary task was still the prosecution of the war to the unconditional surrender of the enemy.

Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho finds himself the new master of the Argonaute, a French flagship taken in battle. With the Peace of Amiens in ruins, he must leave the safety of Falmouth. What lies ahead is the grim reality of war at close quarters - where Bolitho will be called upon to anticipate the overall intention of the French fleet. But the battle has also become a personal vendetta between himself and the French admiral who formerly sailed the Argonaute.