Reviews

Mark Quinlan's British Naval Personalities will be welcomed by anyone with a personal or professional interest in the naval heritage of this country.  It celebrates the lives of nearly 400 notable personalities, from the sixteenth century onwards, in accessible but detailed biographies.  Yet it does more than this. The way that the nation remembers its past is a key to understanding its present and its future, and Quinlan has done a great service by producing this essential point of departure for anyone wishing to explore further a crucial, but often overlooked, part of Britain's naval heritage: its commemoration.  His painstaking research into the careers, personal contributions, and later the commemoration of Britain's most noteworthy naval personalities is, itself, a fitting act of remembrance of those who contributed most to Britain's proud naval history. 

Dr Alan James
(Laughton Naval History Unit)
War Studies Department
King's College, London

 

British Naval Personalities is a 327,000 word book that pays tribute to the actions and careers of this country's most notable naval servicemen and figures. The author Mark Quinlan uses the 500 odd pages of this book to describe and highlight the great naval actions that Britain's sailors have participated in and from the renown of Nelson and Sir Francis Drake, to the more recent Bertram Ramsay, he dedicates much detail and care in honouring their memory.

Quinlan dedicates a page to each personality, making it a very easy read, as the name of each personality appears at the top of the page. The fact that it is only a page per person makes this book very easy to put down and pick up, as it excludes the feeling of not knowing where to start from again. In that sense, this book is unique, in contrast to the usual history books which conversely seem very narrative and drawn out. Quinlan is straight to the point in his delivery and his easy-to-understand language makes this book timeless and readable for any age-group. The effort he has put into the book can be seen in his Bibliography, making it clear that to put a person's life's works onto one page requires more than just Wikipedia, which I fear is what many historians tend to do these days. Quinlan has clearly also observed this and has steered clear of, dare I say "writing another boring, unreadable reference of history!"

This book will sell itself and possibly become renowned as it is the first of its type and I'm sure that soon many duplicates of this style of writing will be apparent on the bookshelves, the reason for this lying in the simplicity of the writing that will surely make learning and reading about history interesting again.

The nicest touch I found was found on the first and last pages of the book. The Remembrance section at the beginning is touching and the British are described as having "a deep and abiding respect for the past." The last pages describe the Victoria Cross and the George Cross's notability and honour, The Victoria Cross being the highest military award for valour.

This book was a great joy to read and I am proud to say I am one of the first to do so. I'm sure it will be noted as landmark in the writing of history.

Thabo Stuck
History student
The Brit School
London

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