Naval history book series in reading order

by Douglas Reeman / Alexander Kent

by Patrick O’Brian

by Julian Stockwin

by C.S. Forester

by Vivian V.A. Stuart

by J.D. Davies

by Alexander Fullerton

Douglas Reeman wrote naval fiction under his own name and as Alexander Kent. Richard Bolitho heads one series and the Blackwood Family books form a second. The catalogue lists 69 titles published between 1958 and 2011, from A Prayer for the Ship (1958) to In the King's Name (2011). Sea stories, the Royal Navy, the Second World War and the Napoleonic wars run through the subjects. The books are long, at a median 320 pages, and output peaked in the 1970s.

Dudley Pope wrote nautical fiction and naval history. Pope lived from 1925 to 1997 and published 37 catalogued books between Flag 4 (1954) and Ramage & the Dido (1989). The Nicholas Ramage novels are the best known work, set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and Ramage (1964) and Ramage and the Drum Beat (1968) sit early in that sequence. Buccaneer Ned Yorke is the second series. Histories of naval actions stand beside the novels, among them The Battle of the River Plate (1956) and 73 North: The Battle of the Barents Sea 1942 (1958). C.S. Forester was the acknowledged influence, and Pope's work is often set beside Patrick O'Brian's.

Naval historical fiction is Dewey Lambdin's genre, following the Royal Navy officer Alan Lewrie through sea stories set in British waters and the Caribbean. The King's Coat (1989) opens the sequence, followed by The French Admiral, The King's Commission, The King's Privateer, The Gun Ketch, H.M.S. Cockerel and A King's Commander. Twenty-seven titles make up the catalogue, which ends with Much Ado about Lewrie in 2019.

Captain Richard Woodman (1944-2024) was an English merchant navy officer, novelist and naval historian who served mainly with Trinity House and retired in 1997 after a 37-year career at sea to write full time. Nathaniel Drinkwater carries the Napoleonic naval fiction, opening with An Eye of the Fleet (1981) and running through A King's Cutter (1982), A Brig of War (1983), The Bomb Vessel (1985) and Baltic Mission (1986). William Kite, Kit Faulkner, James Dunbar and Sword of the State follow, with A History of the British Merchant Navy and Keepers of the Sea on the nonfiction side. The catalogue holds 74 books through 2023, at a median 250 pages.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, a ship's captain and a ship's physician, carry Patrick O'Brian's sea novels from Master and Commander (1969). The catalogue holds 41 books reaching back to Caesar (1930), with standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction beside the Aubrey/Maturin run. Naval history and sea adventure supply the material, and the 1990s were the densest decade.

Nautical historical fiction is Julian Stockwin's subject: seafaring life, naval history, and sailors of Britain and France. His 30 catalogued books span 2001 to 2024 and are dominated by Thomas Kydd, a sequence opening with Kydd (2001), Artemis (2002) and Mutiny (2003). Two standalone novels sit outside it, The Silk Tree and The Powder of Death, alongside non-fiction. Stockwin, an MBE born at Basingstoke in 1944, writes books of a median 352 pages.

C.S. Forester

53 books• 6 series

C. S. Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (1899-1966), an English novelist known for tales of naval warfare. The Horatio Hornblower novels, twelve in all, follow a Royal Navy officer through the Napoleonic Wars; two of them, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours, shared the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Forester also wrote The African Queen and The Good Shepherd, both later filmed, and worked for the British Ministry of Information after moving to the United States during the Second World War. The catalogue holds 53 books dated 1924 to 2020, spanning novels, non-fiction, plays, short stories and children's writing.

David Donachie (1944 to 21 December 2023) was a British author of nautical historical novels, who also wrote as Tom Connery, Jack Ludlow and, from 2019, Jack Cole. The Privateersman Mysteries and John Pearce are series, and Harry Ludlow is a character named in the subjects. The catalogue lists 43 books from The Devil's Own Luck (1993) to If I'd Known You in a Better Time (2024), with Markham of the Marines, Nelson and Emma, Contraband Shore and SAS Boat Troop among the other series. Privateering, naval history and France appear in the subjects.

Vivian V.A. Stuart has 78 catalogued books, beginning with Along Came Ann (1953), and several carry the names Alex Stuart and William Stuart Long. Early titles include The Captain's Table (1953), Ship's Nurse (1954) and Doctor in the Tropics (1955). Romance, doctors in fiction, the Royal Navy, naval history and the Crimean War appear among the subjects. The two series are Phillip Hazard and Alexander Sheridan.

J.D. Davies writes about the Royal Navy in both history and fiction, with 21 catalogued books from 1991 to 2024. The nonfiction includes Gentlemen and Tarpaulins (1991), Pepys's Navy (2008), Britannia's Dragon (2013) and The Naval History of Wales (2024). The Journals of Matthew Quinton series follows a ship captain, opening with Gentleman Captain (2009) and continuing with Blood of Kings (2010) and The Mountain of Gold (2011). Davies also writes the Jack Stannard of the Navy Royal and Philippe Kermorvant series.

James L. Nelson

34 books• 6 series

Ships and sea warfare are James L. Nelson's material. Nelson writes naval historical fiction across the Isaac Biddlecomb novels of the American Revolution, the Thomas Marlowe books, the Samuel Bowater series, the Norsemen Saga and Blood, Steel, and Empire. Ship captains, naval operations and pirates recur throughout. Thirty-four catalogued titles run from By Force of Arms (1996) to Hispaniola Gold (2026).

Seth Hunter is the pen name of Paul Bryers, a British film director, screenwriter and novelist born in Liverpool in 1955. Under the Hunter name he writes naval historical fiction: Nathan Peake, a Royal Navy officer, carries all 9 catalogued books, from The Time of Terror (2008) to The Force of Fate (2024). Sea stories, naval history and espionage fill the subject tags.

Submarines and the Royal Navy supply Alexander Fullerton's subject. Fullerton lived from 1924 to 2008, grew up in France after a Suffolk birth, and entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth aged thirteen in 1938. He served in the Mediterranean aboard the battleship Queen Elizabeth, then spent the rest of the Second World War underwater, and as gunnery and torpedo officer of HM Submarine Seadog in the Far East he was mentioned in dispatches. The Nicholas Everard Saga, Rosie Ewing, the SBS Trilogy, Russian Battles and the Andy Holt naval thrillers make up his series, across 50 catalogued titles dated 1953 to 2020.

Sean Thomas Russell, born on 30 January 1952, is a Canadian writer of fantasy and of historical novels about the Royal Navy. Russell has published as Sean Russell and S. Thomas Russell, and wrote with Ian Dennis under the shared pseudonym T.F. Banks. The catalogue holds 15 books from The Initiate Brother (1991) to Until the Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead (2014). Six series are listed: Initiate Brother, Moontide and Magic Rise, River Into Darkness, Swan's War, Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner and Adventures of Charles Hayden. Titles include Gatherer of Clouds (1992), World Without End (1994), The One Kingdom (2001) and The Isle Of Battle (2002).

Herman Wouk

24 books• 3 series

The Second World War is Herman Wouk's largest subject, in naval and historical fiction alike. The Caine Mutiny (1951) and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1954) sit early in the catalogue, with Marjorie Morningstar (1955) and Youngblood Hawke (1962) after them. The Henry Family novels and Hope and the Glory are the two series. Twenty-four titles are catalogued, ending with Nature's Way in 2020, and the 1950s were the peak decade.

David Poyer, born 1949, is an American author and a retired naval officer. Dan Lenson is a series, and subjects include the United States Navy, officers, sea stories, war and military thrillers and terrorists. Tiller Galloway, Hemlock County and Civil War at Sea are other series. The 51 catalogued books run from White Continent (1980) to Writing Your Memoir In The Age Of AI (2026). The Med (1988), Hatteras Blue (1989) and The Gulf (1990) are among the earlier titles.

F. Van Wyck Mason, who lived from 1901 to 1978, was an American novelist and historian whose writing career ran about 50 years and produced 78 novels. Mason created the intelligence officer Hugh North, who investigates murders in overseas postings across the Captain North Adventure series, starting with Seeds of Murder in 1930 and continuing through titles such as The Branded Spy Murders and Shanghai Bund Murders. He later turned to historical fiction on the American Revolution and the Civil War, ending with Armored Giants in 1980. The catalogue lists 65 titles.

Robert N. Macomber is the author of 18 catalogued books published from 2002 to 2023, with naval history, sea stories and war & military among the subjects. Peter Wake is the fictitious character named in those subjects, and the settings listed include Cuba and Civil War Florida. At the Edge of Honor (2002) is the earliest title, followed by Point of Honor (2003), Honorable Mention (2004) and A Dishonorable Few (2005). Honor Bound (2011) and Honorable Lies (2012) come later. Full Naval Honors (2023) is the newest book.

Edward L. Beach wrote on the United States Navy, submarines and naval history, in fiction and non-fiction alike. The catalogue holds 12 books dated between 1952 and 2002, from Submarine! (1952) to From Annapolis to Scapa Flow (2002), all credited to Beach. Recorded subjects include naval operations, submarine forces, the Second World War, biography, and action and adventure. Titles in the run include Run Silent Run Deep (1955), Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton (1962), Dust On The Sea (1972) and Naval Terms Dictionary (1978).