Penguin The Commodore Форестер Сесил Скотт

One vital convoy can break Mussolini's stranglehold on Malta - but it is intercepted in the Mediterranean by enemy warships • Five light British cruisers are left to beat back the armed might of the Italian battle fleet and C.S. Forester - creator of Horatio Hornblower - takes us aboard HMS Artemis as she steams into battle against overwhelming odds. We get inside the heads of Artemis's men, from the Captain on his bridge down to the lowest engine room rating, as they struggle over one long and terrifying afternoon to do their duty • This brilliant and gripping story recounts life aboard a British warship during some of the darkest days of the Second World War: capturing the urgency of the blazing guns, the thunderous rupturing of deck plates, the screams of pain and, most importantly, the shouts of triumph

The Second Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • The nineteenth century dawns and the Napoleonic Wars rage as Horatio Hornblower is ordered to the Caribbean and dangerous waters • New Lieutenant Hornblower's latest ship is HMS Renown, a sound vessel whose captain is unfortunately of rather unsound mind. When ordered to attack a Spanish anchorage, the chain of command breaks down and it requires all of Hornblower's seafaring cunning to avert disaster. As cannons pound and splinters fly aboard their beleaguered vessel, and the men are forced to engage at close quarters, the young lieutenant knows that to save his ship and crew he must prove himself a master of the high seas • This is the second of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S

Taking us into a 1930s London of grimy back streets, smoky cafes and shabby rooms, Plain Murder, C. S. Forester's second crime novel, is a brilliantly atmospheric and gripping portrayal of the dark heart of a killer, published in Penguin Modern Classics • 'They'll get you for certain,' said Oldroyd. 'Then they'll hang you.' • At the Universal Advertising Agency on the Strand, London, a murder is being planned. Three men have been discovered taking bribes and face the grim prospect of the dole queue, unless they can get rid of the person who caught them. Their ringleader, thick-set and vicious Mr Morris, soon discovers that killing is far easier than he thought - and that he even has a talent for it. He might, he feels, be superhuman. But as he will discover, there is no such thing as the perfect crime, and no deed goes unpunished

A Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • 1813, and Horatio Hornblower is propelled toward the heart of the French Empire and his old enemy, Napoleon • Sir Horatio Hornblower has received strict and highly confidential orders from the highest rank: he must embark upon a grave and perilous mission to recapture the Flame in the Bay of Seine, where the brutal and foul-tempered Lieutenant Augustine Chadwick is being held prisoner by a mutinous crew. Rescuing the Lieutenant demands all of Horatio's spirit and seafaring prowess - for at the same time, he must contend with capturing two French cargo vessels and take part in negotiations to topple the faltering Napoleon once and for all • This is the ninth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C

A Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • A humiliated and shipless captive of the French, Horatio Hornblower faces execution unless he can escape and make a triumphant return to England • Forced to surrender his ship, HMS Sutherland, after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower is held prisoner in a French fortress. Prospects turn bleaker when he learns that he and Lt. Bush are to be tried and executed in Paris as part of Napoleon's attempts to rally the war-weary Empire. Even if Hornblower can escape this fate and make it safe to England, he still faces court-martial for surrendering his ship. With little hope for the future and little left to lose, Hornblower throws caution to the wind once more • This is the seventh of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C

The Third Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • April 1803, and the Peace of Amiens is failing as Horatio Hornblower takes a sloop on a vital reconnaissance mission • On the day of his marriage to Maria, Hornblower is ordered to take the Hotspur and head for Brest - war is coming and Napoleon will not catch His Majesty's navy with its britches round its ankles. With thoughts of his new life as a husband intruding on his duties, Hornblower must prove himself to be not only the most capable commander in the fleet, but also its most daring if he is to stop the French gaining the upper hand • This is the third of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower • Featuring an exclusive introduction by Bernard Cornwell, creator of Sharpe

Follow the thrilling and exciting adventures of Horatio Hornblower's life at sea in the Royal Navy, in these three classic stories • Hornblower and the Atropos • Skippering the flagship for Nelson's funeral on the Thames is not Hornblower's idea of thrilling action. But soon his orders come, and he sets sail for the Mediterranean in the Atropos. Battle, storm, shipwreck, disease - what were the chances that he would never come back again? • The Happy Return • Hornblower sails the South American waters and comes face to face with a mad, messianic revolutionary in this gripping adventure • A Ship of the Line • Commando raids, hurricanes at sea, the glowering menace of Napoleon's onshore gun batteries - Hornblower must deal with them all as he sails his ship to the Spanish station

A Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • In the final instalment of the Horatio Hornblower series we visit some lesser known adventures across our hero's long career, including Napoleon's plans to invade England • 1805 and Horatio Hornblower is in possession of confidential dispatches from Bonaparte after a vicious hand-to-hand encounter with a French brig. The admiralty rewards Hornblower by sending him on a dangerous espionage mission that will light the powder trail leading to the battle of Trafalgar • Hornblower and the Crisis was unfinished at the time of Forester's death, but the author left notes - included here - telling us how the tale would end. Also included are two further stories - Hornblower and the Widow McCool and The Last Encounter - that tell of Hornblower as a very young and very old man, respectively

A Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • May, 1810 - and thirty-nine-year-old Captain Horatio Hornblower has been handed his first ship of the line • Though the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland is 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy' and a crew shortage means he must recruit two hundred and fifty landlubbers, Hornblower knows that by the time Sutherland and her squadron reach the blockaded Catalonian coast every seaman will do his duty. But with daring raids against the French army and navy to be made, it will take all Hornblower's seamanship - and stewardship - to steer a steady course to victory and home • This is the sixth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower

A Horatio Hornblower Tale of the Sea • 1805, and Hornblower is both humbled and honoured in quick succession • After near disaster on board a canal barge, Horatio Hornblower is given his first assignment as Captain, taking charge of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop that will act as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson. Soon the Atropos is part of the Mediterranean fleet's assault upon Napoleon, and Captain Hornblower must execute a bold and daring salvage operation for buried treasure lying deep in Turkish waters. Under the guns of a suspicious port captain and the threat of a Spanish frigate more than double Atropos's size, Hornblower must steer his ship unscathed and triumphant • This is the fourth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C

The most vivid, moving – and devastating – word-portrait of a World War One British commander ever written, here re-introduced by Max Hastings • C.S. Forester’s 1936 masterpiece follows Lt General Herbert Curzon, who fumbled a fortuitous early step on the path to glory in the Boer War. 1914 finds him an honourable, decent, brave and wholly unimaginative colonel. Survival through the early slaughters in which so many fellow-officers perished then brings him rapid promotion. By 1916, he is a general in command of 100,000 British soldiers, whom he leads through the horrors of the Somme and Passchendaele, a position for which he is entirely unsuited and intellectually unprepared • Wonderfully human with Forester’s droll relish for human folly on full display, this is the story of a man of his time who is anything but wicked, yet presides over appalling sacrifice and tragedy

Роман К. С. Форестера "Адмирал Хорнблауэр в Вест-Индии" ("Пушки Карабобо") - история о воображаемой серии инцидентов, связанных с одной восемнадцатифунтовой пушкой во время войны на Пиренейском полуострове • 1821 год. Судьба сводит британского контр-адмирала Хорнблауэра с бывшим наполеоновским генералом Камброном на побережье Мексиканского залива. Человек с лицом подраненной хищной птицы прибыл в эти края, чтобы устроить судьбу своих однополчан-колонистов, обосновавшихся в Америке после падения империи Бонапарта. Увы, старые французские вояки не прижились в чужом климате и теперь их нужно срочно эвакуировать. Дело понятное, благородное, вот только груз на корабле Камброна показался таможенникам что-то слишком уж большим. Учитывая, что Карибский бассейн охватила волна волнений - пираты, работорговцы, повстанцы во главе с Боливаром, - британский консул просит Хорнблауэра проконтролировать действия французского генерала