Background
He was the son of the novelist and educationist Guy Pocock, who taught Lord Mountbatten at Dartmouth, and attended Westminster School and Cheltenham College.
(Frederick Marryat was England's most famous author in the...)
Frederick Marryat was England's most famous author in the years between Jane Austen and Charles Dickens; even more than that he was a naval hero of the Napoleonic Wars and it was his exploits in the Royal Navy during those years that formed the core of his writing. Marryat's whole life was as fantastic as anything in his books. Biographer Tom Pocock chronicles Marryat's extraordinary life with appropriate zest, leaving the modern reader to ponder on the immoderation and versatility of lives in a more uncertain age.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081170355X/?tag=2022091-20
(John Pocock’s diary of life in London and voyages to Cape...)
John Pocock’s diary of life in London and voyages to Cape Town and Australia.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909609706/?tag=2022091-20
(Essential Travel Guides are the world's best-selling new ...)
Essential Travel Guides are the world's best-selling new travel guide series. Essentials are easy-to-use, easy-to-carry and tell you all you need to know for a perfect trip. They are written by expert authors and superbly illustrated by top travel photographers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0844289493/?tag=2022091-20
(Rider Haggard is remembered as the author of adventure no...)
Rider Haggard is remembered as the author of adventure novels, which shocked and fascinated not only Victorian and Edwardian Britain, but the world. Films of his books - notable "King Solomon's Mines" and "She" have been made, but Haggard, a Norfolk squire, saw his writing only as an amusing and lucrative pastime. The other Haggard, statesman and creator of a world of fact is explored in this book. His imagination was held by the reality of the British Empire and its future rather than the lost civilizations of his literary fantasies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0297813080/?tag=2022091-20
(The first world war was notthat which began in 1914, but ...)
The first world war was notthat which began in 1914, but the co-called Seven Years War which, in 1756, brought into being global conflict. The new factor which dramatically altered the course of history was British sea power. With the support of the navy, a few thousand men dispossessed the French of their fledgling North American empire and saw them, and the Dutch, utterly vanquished in India. Attacks on Cuba and the Philippines crippled the Spanish Empire. Through feats of extraordinary courage and endurance, fighting merchant adventurers such as Robert Clive laid the foundations of an Indian empire. In North America, soldiers such as the Virginia militia officer, George Washington, the future first President of the United States, and James Wolfe, who died in the battle for Quebec, determined that Canada would be British - not French. In this vivid account of this first 'modern' war, Tom Pocock uses the testimony of eye-eitnesses to dramatic effect. Nigel Nicolson, The Spectator "Pocock's book makes enthralling reading... his prose is excellent." Admiral Sir Jock Slater, First Sea Lord, in The Times "Tom Pocock has written another stirring popular history... Pocock vividly brings his work to life. The lessons of history are brought to life by Tom Pocock and his latest book is a thoroughly good read." Lawrence James, Evening Standard "Tom Pocock has caught the flavour of this age. He is a first-rate story-teller, writing with an appropriate gusto about his robust heroes."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909609544/?tag=2022091-20
(Nelson's victory at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 was a pi...)
Nelson's victory at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 was a pivotal event in European history. But Trafalgar was not simply an isolated battle fought and won in an afternoon - the naval campaign had in fact begun more than four years before. This extraordinary period, following Napoleon's threat to invade England in 1801, came to be known as The Great Terror, and Britain was on the alert. As the Grande Armee faced a Dad's army of English volunteers across the Channel, a secret war of espionage and subversion was fought in the shadows. New weapons - rockets, submarines and torpedoes - were developed. Drawing on diaries, letters and newspapers, Tom Pocock paints a vivid picture of the years from 1801 to 1805, and of people caught up in these events: Nelson himself as he blockaded the French at sea for two unbroken years, his love Emma Hamilton waiting at home, Jane Austen and her naval brothers, the diarist Fanny Burney, the admirals, generals and politicians, as well as the lesser-known men such as Fulton, Congreve, Moreau and Pichegru who waged the secret war on either side of the Channel. The Economist "Engrossing... The Terror Before Trafalgar is narrative history at its shining best." Peter Padfield, BBC History "Tom Pocock is the doyen of Nelson scholarship in our time... Pocock has provided a fascinating cast of characters as outstanding in their way as Nelson..." Sunday Times "Pocock adds fresh lustre to his reputation as our leading authority on Nelson with this sudy of the threat of a Napoleonic invasion that convulsed Britain" Richard Woodman, Lloyd's List "Mr. Pocock is perhaps the world's leading authority on the great admiral... Mr. Pocock 's book is a lucid exposition of this vibrantly exciting period..." Nicholas Fearn, Independent on Sunday "A superb contribution..."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909609676/?tag=2022091-20
(Pocock's biography of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith who, along...)
Pocock's biography of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith who, along with Nelson, shared the credit for changing the course of history by ending Bonaparte's dream of eastern conquest shows that while Nelson has become the unrivalled national hero, Smith has been almost forgotten.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909609536/?tag=2022091-20
(Of all the British monarchs who have claimed that they ha...)
Of all the British monarchs who have claimed that they have ruled the seas, only one, King William IV, has been a truly professional seafarer. Known as the "Sailor King" in his own lifetime, he saw himself as a naval officer who happened to become the sovereign rather than a monarch who had been a naval officer. His life presents an appealing, if sometimes shocking character. His life in the Royal Navy was fraught with crisis: rivalries, doomed love affairs, extravagance and rebelliousness. Often he seems a Hogarthian character, or a nautical version of the Regency rake. Yet, while many mocked or despised him, there were those who loved him. And, when he came to the throne and was all but swept away by the tide of the Age of Reform, he faced it with resolution and survived with honour. He had overcome the pressures and contradictions of a royal upbringing, to end his days a king who was not only loved but admired for setting an unstable monarchy on an even keel for the long reign of his niece Victoria which followed his.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190960965X/?tag=2022091-20
(Alan Moorehead was lionized as the literary man of action...)
Alan Moorehead was lionized as the literary man of action: the most celebrated war correspondent of World War II; author of award-winning books; star travel-writer of "The New Yorker'; pioneer publicist of wildlife conservation. Then, at the height of his success, his writing suddenly stopped and when, 17 years later, his death was announced, he seemed a heroic figure from the past. With exclusive access to unpublished letters and diaries and after extensive interviews with Moorehead's family and friends, Tom Pocock tells the story of the young Australian whose fame as a writer gave him the friendship of Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Field Marshall Montgomery and whose courtship and marriage to the beautiful Lucy Milner is reflected in a remarkable sequence of love letters. In this biography Moorehead appears as a man with a great appetite for experience and the ability to convey it, worthy of the epic times in which he lived.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0370312619/?tag=2022091-20
He was the son of the novelist and educationist Guy Pocock, who taught Lord Mountbatten at Dartmouth, and attended Westminster School and Cheltenham College.
Westminster School.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1943, being present at Doctorate-Day and then serving as naval "minder" to war correspondents covering the Battle of Normandy. Falling ill, by the end of 1944 he was demobbed, and became a war correspondent at only 19 years old. He spent four years with the Hulton Press current affairs magazine group, being one of the first journalists to see Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and learning his trade from (later becoming his biographer).
He then moved on to be a feature-writer and then Naval Correspondent on the Daily Mail, and then (in 1952) Naval Correspondent of The Times.
He was a foreign correspondent and special writer for the Daily Express from 1956 to 1959, then from 1959 was feature writer, Defence Correspondent, war correspondent and finally Travel Editor on the Evening Standard.
(Pocock's biography of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith who, along...)
(Frederick Marryat was England's most famous author in the...)
(Alan Moorehead was lionized as the literary man of action...)
(Rider Haggard is remembered as the author of adventure no...)
(Of all the British monarchs who have claimed that they ha...)
(The first world war was notthat which began in 1914, but ...)
(Nelson's victory at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 was a pi...)
(John Pocock’s diary of life in London and voyages to Cape...)
(Essential Travel Guides are the world's best-selling new ...)
(British colonial history)