Nelson
Authors: John Sugden
Nelson: A Dream of Glory
is the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched account ever written of Horatio Nelson's rise to international fame. Giving us the private as well as the public man, it combines ground-breaking scholarship with a brilliantly vivid and compelling style.
‘A magnificently-researched and thoughtful work which locates Nelson in a global context.’ Linda Colley
‘Massively authoritative.’ Max Hastings,
Sunday Telegraph
‘This monumental tome is the finest yet written on England’s naval hero... Sugden’s brilliant book is chock-full of fascinating details. And if the second volume turns out as well as this, his life of Nelson will be one of the historical masterpieces of our time.’ Frank McLynn,
Daily Express
725
NELSON
The recipient of numerous awards, John Sugden has degrees from three British universities and was formerly a lecturer and senior research fellow. He has pursued historical research in archives throughout Britain and North America and his books and many articles have been published to great acclaim. With
Nelson
Dr Sugden returns to a lifelong interest in naval history. A member of the Society for Nautical Research for forty years, his publications include a popular biography of Sir Francis Drake. It was while researching a doctorate on Nelson’s navy thirty years ago that he recognised the extent of the untapped materials and the need for a major new biography.
Nelson: A Dream of Glory
‘This monumental tome is the finest yet written on England’s great naval hero... chock-full of fascinating detail, from Nelson’s battles to his first mistress, Adelaide Correglia.’ Frank McLynn,
Daily Express
‘Sugden’s account... is richly absorbing, and his fluent, buoyant prose scuds along, carrying the reader with it. This must surely become a standard life.’ Jane Ridley,
Spectator
‘Sugden makes very effective use of the new material to challenge the traditional story. Moreover... he has tracked down some of the little known characters – junior officers, even ordinary seamen, and brought them alive by meticulous research.’ Colin White,
Observer
‘A masterpiece of the biographer’s art... A book that will be the yardstick by which all other Nelson biographies will be judged for decades to come.’ Neil Hanson,
Sunday Times
‘Sugden’s passion for his subject and astonishing research reveal the blossoming hero in a new light.’ Lucy Moore,
Daily Mail
‘The massive, magisterially detailed first volume of what will surely be the definitive life.’ T. J. Binyon,
Scotsman
‘The most detailed study of Nelson ever published.’ F. J. M. Scott,
History Today
A Dream of Glory
JOHN SUGDEN
This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781446444580
Published by Pimlico 2005
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3
Copyright © John Sugden 2004
John Sugden has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
First published in Great Britain by
Jonathan Cape in 2004
Pimlico edition 2005
Pimlico
Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London SW1V 2SA
Random House Australia (Pty) Limited
20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney,
New South Wales 2061, Australia
Random House New Zealand Limited
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Auckland 10, New Zealand
Random House South Africa (Pty) Limited
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Random House UK Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780712667432 (from Jan 2007)
ISBN 0712667431
Hope revives within me. I shall
recover, and my dream of glory be fulfilled.
Nelson will yet be an admiral
.
Horatio Nelson, aged twenty-one, shipped home with malaria, 1780
This one is for my mother, Lily,
who told me that Nelson was
the
great man;
for Phil, who prefers James Cook;
and for Terri,
who alone of us has crewed aboard a tall ship
BOOK ONE: The Prelude, 1758–92
II: The Small World of Burnham Thorpe
III: Captain Suckling’s Nephew
VIII: In the Wake of the Buccaneers
XIII: Old Officers and Young Gentlemen
XV: The Prince and the Post-Captain
BOOK TWO: ‘To Glory We Steer’, 1793–7
XIX: A Long and Hazardous Service
XX: Two Meetings with French Gentry
XXII: From Flag Captain to Ship-Boy
XXV: Who Will Not Fight For Dollars?
XXVI: More Daring Intrepidity Was Never Shown
1. Captain Horatio Nelson, 1781 (
copyright National Maritime Museum, London
).
3. Edmund Nelson (
author’s collection
).
4. Catherine Nelson (
author’s collection
).
5. Ann Suckling (
copyright National Maritime Museum, London
).
6. Nelson’s Norfolk (
author’s collection
).
7. Burnham Thorpe Rectory (
author’s collection
).
8. Norwich School (
courtesy of Julian Lowe
).
9. The Paston School, North Walsham (
author’s collection
).
10. Maurice Suckling (
author’s collection
).
11. Skeffington Lutwidge (
author’s collection
).
12. The
Carcass
and the
Racehorse
, 1773 (
author’s collection
).
13. George Farmer (
courtesy of the Hull Reference Library
).
14. Edward Hughes (
courtesy of the Hull Reference Library
).
15. Charles Pole (
author’s collection
).
16. William Locker and his family (
author’s collection
).
17. Peter Parker (
courtesy of the Hull Reference Library
).
18. Cuthbert Collingwood (
copyright National Maritime Museum, London
).
19. Mary Moutray (
by permission of Clive Richards
).
20. English Harbour, Antigua (
author’s collection
).
21. Prince William Henry (
author’s collection
).
22. Frances, Lady Nelson (
copyright National Maritime Museum, London
).
23. House of William Suckling (
author’s collection
).
24. Courtenay Boyle (
author’s collection
).
25. George Andrews (
by permission of the Nelson Society
).
26. Samuel, Viscount Hood (
author’s collection
).
27. John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent (
author’s collection
).
28. Gilbert Elliot, Earl of Minto (
author’s collection
).
29. Charles Stuart (
courtesy of Glasgow Museums: Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove
).
30. Francis Drake (
copyright The British Museum
).
32. Thomas Francis Fremantle (
courtesy of Sir Ludovic Kennedy
).
33. Thomas Troubridge (
author’s collection
).
34. Thomas Ramsay (
copyright The British Museum
).
35. William Hoste (
author’s collection
).
36. Battle of Cape St. Vincent, 1797 (
author’s collection
).
37. Boarding the
San Nicolas
, 1797 (
author’s collection
).
