Julian Stockwin - The Privateer's Revenge

In fact the Channel Islands are fascinating indeed. St Peter Port is rightly said to be as prime a Georgian city as Bath or Weymouth, and a brisk walk up Grange Road will allow the interested to view the splendours of the residences built by successful privateers and grand merchants. The original harbour remains, but within the embrace of a much larger modern edifice; however the fearful sea hazards of dizzying tidal currents and the maze of submerged rocks still have the power to chill.

For the inhabitants of the Norman Isles, as fiercely independent as ever, the loyal toast will always be to the Duke of Normandy. They revere those who have loomed large in their thousand-year history, perhaps none more than Admiral Sir James Saumarez, a grave figure whose integrity and sensitivity ensured that he would always stand in the shadow of other, more colourful commanders. I was gratified to learn recently that there are plans for his memorial, dynamited by the German army, to be restored.

Philippe d'Auvergne's story is a less happy one: at the end of the war, exhausted and in debt, he crossed Europe to enter into his princely inheritance—only to have it bartered away by the Great Powers in the readjustment of borders after Waterloo. He died days later.

As usual, I owe a debt of gratitude to three women without whom there would be no books: my creative partner and wife, Kathy; my literary agent, Carole Blake; and my editor, Alex Bonham. I've consulted many in the Islands, and I apologise for not naming them all. However I would be remiss in not mentioning Dr Gregory Stevens Cox, whose peerless work on the period started me on my quest and whose personal tours stripped away the layers of years; the Lt Governor of Guernsey, Sir Fabian Malbon, who as an admiral and commander-in-chief himself shares my respect for Sir James; and Captain Eric Gill, the Queen's harbour master, whose insightful observations on navigation in those waters informed my writing. My thanks are due, too, to Captain A. J. Holland, Nicholas Gold, Peter de Sausmarez and the staff of the Priaulx Library.

I do hope you enjoyed this story: in the next book Kydd will be sailing into shoal waters of quite another kind . . .