Breaking the line - David Donachie

Horatio Nelson is our most famous military hero. His statue dominates the capital, he has adorned our currency, his last words have passed into folklore, and HMS Victory, his flagship at Trafalgar, is the centrepiece of our naval heritage. Ask anyone ?Who was Nelson and they will be able to tell you. TAKEN AT THE FLOOD and the first volume ON A MAKING TIDE tells the story of our greatest military genius and his long-running love affair with Emma Hamilton; a love that transgressed class, position and social convention and which threatened them both with ruin.

Following Nelson?s victory at the Nile he is feted at home as our greatest hero ever. Further victories against the French raise his popularity with the public at large to a fever pitch. But at court Nelson?s ego and his love for Emma Hamilton, seen as little more than a whore by the courtiers surrounding George III, dog his progress. Only in death will he finally be accepted at the heart of society. Following both Nelson?s exceptional career and the spirited progress of Emma, it is a story of talent and character overcoming tradition and expectation; a story of a society on the cusp of the liberal 18th and conservative 19th centuries and the fate of two people caught in the middle of the change. From arctic ice flow to Neapolitan courtroom, from single ship actions in the dank English channel to fleet actions in the mouth of the Nile, this is the story of a great hero, a doomed love affair and a war that stretched across the world.