Author: Sam

BBC Radio 4 Making History

Date Posted: 15/01/2013

The episode of Making History in which I discuss the London Naval Conference of 1930 is broadcast today, 15 January. You will soon be able to hear it again on the BBCiPlayer. Read More

In The Hour of Victory

Date Posted: 06/01/2013

The time is nearly upon us! My new book, ‘In the Hour of Victory: The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson’ is out in February and you can hear all about it on 1 February at the British Library or on 21 February at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth. .... Read More

Glorious First of June wins 2012 Anderson Medal

Date Posted: 12/12/2012

I am delighted to announce that The Glorious First of June, the third volume of my Hearts of Oak Trilogy has been awarded the Anderson Medal by the Society for Nautical Research. I very much look forward to receiving the award at an event to be held at the National Maritime .... Read More

London History Festival

Date Posted: 23/11/2012

I will be appearing at the London History Festival on Wednesday 28 November at 7pm at Waterstones in Kensington. You can read more about the festival and what I will be talking about here. See y’all there. Bring your friends. Read More

Skyfall and the Fighting Temeraire!

Date Posted: 31/10/2012

So there I was, watching Skyfall, slightly disappointed that M didn’t do a Mobot when she first came on screen when, would you believe it, Bond meets the new Q in Room 34 of the National Gallery, in front of The Fighting Temeraire, the painting which is the subject of .... Read More

BBC2 Turner Documentary and George William Manby

Date Posted: 21/09/2012

I have just finished filming  for a new BBC2 documentary about Turner, and particularly about Turner’s interest in technology. We decided to focus in particular on this painting: Turner, who was USELESS at coming up with painting titles, called it ‘ Life-Boat and .... Read More

Bernard Cornwell, the Olympia and the Fighting Temeraire

Date Posted: 01/09/2012

It is not long now until the paperback of the Glorious First of June – the final installment of my Hearts of Oak Trilogy – reaches the shops and so there is no better time to go back and think about the book that began it all, The Fighting Temeraire. When Bernard .... Read More

The Epic Portage to Lake George

Date Posted: 05/07/2012

The next stage of the US mega-trip took me back up the East Coast and then inland to Albany and the Hudson Highlands. We drove north, past the Saratoga battlefields and then on to the mighty lakes which provide a crucial link in the chain of waterways that runs from Quebec .... Read More

The Chesapeak

Date Posted: 15/06/2012

From New York I made it in one piece to the Chesapeak to take part in their festival ‘OpSail 2012’, all linked with the Bicentenary of the War of 1812. Which, in today’s headlines of ‘USA Today’, they cheerfully describe as their .... Read More

Boston and New York

Date Posted: 03/06/2012

Those of you who have been following me on Twitter @navalhistoryguy will know that I am in the middle of a research/lecturing tour of America. It began a fortnight ago in Boston, from where I visited Salem and Marblehead in Massachusetts, and then the Naval War College in .... Read More