Julian Stockwin

A wig maker from Guildford, Thomas Kydd finds himself pressed into the service of the Crown as a landsman. His first berth is aboard HMS Duke William, where he befriends Nicholas Renzi.

Now berthed in Artemis, Kydd journeys to the Pacific and China.

Kydd and Renzi are shipped to the Caribbean. There they join the cutter Seaflower.

The Nore mutiny finds Kydd with split loyalties – between his duty and his shipmates.

After being promoted to Lieutenant after the Nore Mutiny, Thomas Kydd joins Tenacious serving in Canada.

Kydd is assigned as Commander of Teazer, patrolling the waters around Malta and the Mediterranean. When peace is declared he resigns his commission and sails to the antipodes as captain of a merchant ship.

War with France resumes. Again in command of Teazer, Kydd has challenges both naval and relational as he encounters an Admiral's daughter, the sophisticated Persephone Lockwood.

Kydd is disgraced and leaves naval service. However he takes to the sea again as a privateer.

Exonerated and back in Naval service, Kydd encounters the rocket inventor Robert Fulton.

Our hero takes part in the build-up to and the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain.

Cape Town, a Dutch colony, is to be taken; Kydd joins a joint expedition of land- and sea-based forces.

Kydd travels from South Africa to Buenos Aires to take part in Commodore Popham's audacious attack.

The sugar trade, vital to British interests, is threatened. Kydd must respond.

Istanbul and the Dardanelles are the setting for conflict and intrigues. Kydd’s 'particular friend' Renzi is right at the heart of things.

Kydd gains command of HMS Tyger at a critical moment in his career.

The Danish fleet is the focus of British and French attention; with Napoleon's forces rapidly approaching Copenhagen diplomacy is vital.

Kydd, now a celebrated hero, takes HMS Tyger to Lisbon and meets his old flame Persephone Lockwood.

At short notice Tyger is called to join a newly assembled fleet and sent to the Baltic and the only remaining continental ally to Great Britain, the kingdom of Sweden. Kydd finds he is to serve under Sir James Saumarez, a Vice-Admiral whom he has encountered before.

The Iberian peninsula is in ferment and Bonaparte seeks to carve up Portugal and install his brother Joseph as King of Spain. Renzi is sent to incite opposition to France's intentions in Spain. Kydd becomes embroiled in support of the British expeditionary force in northwestern Spain.

Back in London after Corunna, Kydd is again the hero. Soon, thrust into the forefront of the action at the insistence of Lord Thomas Cochrane, the Basque Roads are the scene of his next encounter with the French. In addition financial ruin beckons.

The Dutch East Indies and their spice trade attract France and Britain. Admiral Pellew and his force including Kydd attempt to intervene and colonialist Stamford Raffles persuades Kydd to aim at the Moluccas rather than take a more steady approach.

Now in the Adriatic, Kydd has even caught the attention of Bonaparte himself. Kydd and his small fleet are to harass the enemy in this region of ocean whilst Renzi is to stop Dubourdieu. The route to India is the prize.

An invasion fleet is being mustered across the channel from Britain, Kydd must investigate; but he now has a ship of the line the 74 gun "Thunderer". Is this the invasion long feared or is it targeted elsewhere?

The US navy are beginning to fall on frigates of the Royal Navy, so who should the admiralty send to deal with the threat other than their highly successful and much decorated Sir Thomas Kidd and with a crack frigate at his command.

Returning to England from America Kydd again takes command of Thunderer and is sent to the Bermuda and the Caribbean.