The hero of my fiction is an ambitious Royal Navy officer, Nicholas Dawlish (1845-1918). For me he's a real person whose life I am continuing to research in ever greater detail and you can find a sort summary of his life on the following link: A Life of Service and Adventure
The overall title of the series is "The Dawlish Chronicles" and the first of the novels in the sequence is "Britannia's Wolf", published in April 2013, and which covers Dawlish's secondment to the Ottoman Navy during the brutal final stages of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. This conflict had the potential to expand into a war that could involve all the European powers. It could indeed have brought the outbreak of World War 1 forward by almost four decades. British strategic interests were at stake but there was reluctance to commit military forces until it would be absolutely unavoidable. There was however no hesitation by the British Government to committing British advisers and secondees - like Nicholas Dawlish.
In "Britannia's Wolf", in the depths of a savage winter, and as Ottoman-Turkish forces face defeat on all fronts, Dawlish must ravage Russian supply lines in the Black Sea and must face enemy ironclads, Cossack lances and merciless Kurdish irregulars. But he also finds himself a pawn in the rivalry between the Sultan's half-brothers for control of a collapsing empire. And in the midst of chaos, unwillingly and unexpectedly, Dawlish finds himself drawn to a woman he believes he cannot allow himself to love, not for is sake, and not for hers.
"Britannia's Wolf" is available in paperback and in Kindle: click here for details.
The second of the Dawlish Chronicles will be published later in 2013 - it is currently at the proofreading stage and cover-design is now also about to start. It follows the first novel chronologically and though also founded on historical fact it will surprise readers as regards location.
A final point: you may like to know more about me. If so you can read an interview with me, or hear me being interviewed by novelist Seymour Hamilton if you click here.
This is my first blog entry and I hope you'll find this, and subsequent articles, of interest. You may also find my website www.dawlishchronicles.com or interest, as it addresses many other issues surrounding the period in which the novels are set.
You are also cordially requested to "like" the Dawlish Chronicles page on Facebook, which contains sorter posts relevant to the period, its politics and its technology
I read, and was gripped by, Britannia's Wolf. I am looking forward to reading the sequels. Where is the next one set? I am based in Kazakhstan but I doubt that Dawlish would ever have found his way here to join the resistance against the Tsars.
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