Three Corvettes

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: New
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 30 Mar 2000
ISBN 10: 0304354449
ISBN 13: 9780304354443
Book Overview: Nicholas Monsarrat was born with the sea in his blood. During the war, he rose to become a First Lieutenant RNVR, then a corvette captain, then a frigate captain, all the while making notes, keeping a diary, publishing wartime accounts. From that experience there came, in due course, The Cruel Sea. But his reputation as a great writer had by then long been established by the jewels in this book, which include reportage, autobiography and fiction. Three Corvettes record the difficult years 1940-43, on the east coast and in the Atlantic; the three books were published between 1942 and 1944. It Was Cruel is an autobiographical piece; A Ship to Remember is an account of the sinking of the British troopship Lancastria in June 1940, with the loss of 3,000 men; I Was There, HMS Marlborough Will Enter Harbour and The Ship That Died of Shame are all fiction: of the sort that can only come from personal experience.