Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm
by Tim Clayton and Phil Craig
Hodder $135
A legacy of the Battle of Trafalgar, whose bicentennial is October 21, is the term 'perfect storm'. It was used by Captain Charles Tyler of HMS Tonnant to describe the subsequent four-day tempest that killed more men than the engagement itself. Tim Clayton and Phil Craig, a writing team with credits including Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain and Diana: Story of a Princess, have minutely researched Trafalgar, drawing on French, Spanish and British material. Those sources form the basis of several of the flood of new books on Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson and the battle coming out this year, all of which purport to add something new to the tale that did much to colour the British self image. Trafalgar was not so much about a clash of mighty warships as the bravery of the English sailors in saving thousands of injured and exhausted French and Spanish in the nightmare storm that followed. Clayton and Craig let the sailors speak for themselves, while charting a clear and, at times, thrilling course through the events as they unfold.