Sharpe’s Trafalgar – Bernard Cornwell

Hot on the heels of Sharpe’s Fortress, I raced through the next instalment, Sharpe’s Trafalgar which tells of Richard Sharpe’s return to England from India, via the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. En route he encounters the French in the shape of the warship Revenant and romance in the delightful form of Lady Grace, who is, unfortunately, married to the not so lovely Lord William Hale.

Plenty of detail on life under sail at the start of the 19th century – from the cramped yet hierarchical nature of ship’s quarters to the meagerness of ship’s rations to the tactics of battle at sea. If the battle scenes don’t set your pulse racing, the love story probably will!

Amazon.co.uk: Sharpe’s Trafalgar – Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe Novels: an Amazon Listmania list, giving the Sharpe series in order of event rather than publication.