Patrick O'Brian - Master and Commander
Known
as the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the twenty books are regarded by many as
the most engaging historical novels ever written. Master and Commander
establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen
Maturin, who becomes his ship's surgeon and an intelligence agent.
O'Brian
won fans not just because of the story-telling and his power of
characterisation but also his detailed depiction of life aboard a
Nelsonic man-of-war : the weapons, food, conversation and ambience, the
landscape and the sea.
Master and Commander
was first published in 1969 and the twentieth novel in the series Blue
at the Mizzen, in 1999, a year before O'Brian died.
Allan
Mallinson also writes novels about the Napoleonic wars and knew
O'Brian. And as always on Bookclub a group of invited readers join in
the discussion.
December's programme marks the
200th edition of Bookclub which began in 1998 and has featured the
world's leading authors from the late 20th/early 21st century like Toni
Morrison, JK Rowling, Hilary Mantel, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Paul
Auster, Alan Bennett. James Naughtie's impressive list of guests also
includes writers who are no longer with us like Muriel Spark, Gore
Vidal, Douglas Adams, Carol Shields, and Sue Townsend. All are available
online to download and keep forever, via the programme's website
bbc.in/r4bookclub .
Presenter : James NaughtieInterviewed guest : Allan Mallinson
Producer: Dymphna Flynn
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