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The Pursuit of Victory
The Pursuit of Victory
Oct 31, 2024 7:15 AM

Author:Roger Knight

The Pursuit of Victory

The starting point of Roger Knight's magnificent new biography is to explain how Nelson achieved such extraordinary success. Knight places him firmly in the context of the Royal Navy at the time. He analyses Nelson's more obvious qualities, his leadership strengths and his coolness and certainty in battle, and also explores his strategic grasp, the condition of his ships, the skill of his seamen and his relationships with the officers around him - including those who could hardly be called friendly.

This biography takes a cool look at Nelson's status as a hero and demolishes many of the myths that were so carefully established by the early authors, and repeated by their modern successors. Nelson was a shrewd political operator who charmed and impressed political leaders and whose advancement was helped by the relatively weak generation of admirals above him. He was a difficult subordinate, only happy when completely in command, and capable of great ruthlessness. He was flawed, but brilliant - and not to be crossed.

Reviews

Gripping ... a much-needed reinterrogation

—— Daily Telegraph

A magisterial work...confident prose, trenchant insight and vivid illustration

—— Independent

'Splendidly conveys...compassion, excitement, entertainment'

—— Evening Standard

Vividly readable... Leslie Thomas is one of nature's life enchancers

—— Sunday Express

A fine storyteller

—— Sunday Telegraph

Grossman was above all a clear-eyed and generous witness to the human cost of war, civilians and soldiers of both sides, the lost women and broken men; in the very highest order of journalistic achievement, he was as alert to the victims as much as to the heroes his audience was required to read about

—— David Flusfeder , Daily Telegraph

Impeccably edited, the commentary as informative as it is unobtrusive.

—— Robert Chandler , Financial Times

In bringing his notebooks to a wider audience, and in reminding us about this brilliant witness, Beevor and Vinogradova have done their readers - and Grossman's memory - a great service

—— Independent

'Nicholas Stargardt evokes the individual voices of children under Nazi rule. In re-creating their wartime experiences, he has produced a challenging new historical interpretation of the Second World War

—— History Today
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