Desolation Island

The Aubrey – Maturin series of novels set at the time of the Anglo-French wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is one of the great achievements of twentieth century historical fiction, matching the empathetic genius seen in the works of Paul Scott and J. G. Farrell. With the same narrative urgency of C. S. Forrester, the scope and detail of O’Brian’s historical recreation is truly astonishing. Characters, language, settings on land and at sea are totally compelling – surely this is as close as a post-industrial writer can come to presenting a largely pre-industrial world. The direct skills of harnessing and combating the forces of nature simply to sail out of harbour and to make safe landfall through a charging sea and surging rip tide with the barometer tumbling could not contrast more fully with our dependence on digital technology to achieve almost anything of consequence. It is a sobering contrast.