Book Description
The Reverse of the Medal is in all respects an unconventional naval tale. Jack Aubrey returns from his duties protecting whalers off South America and is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make investments in the City on the strength of supposedly certain information. From there he is led into the half worlds of the London criminal underground and of government espionage – the province of his friend, Stephen Maturin, on whom alone he can rely. Those who are already devoted readers of Patrick O’Brian will find here all the brilliance of characterisation and sparkle of dialogue which they have come to expect. For those who read him for the first time there will be the pleasure of discovering, quite unexpectedly, a novelist of unique character.
About the Author
Patrick O’Brian, one of our greatest contemporary novelists, is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. His first novel, ‘Testimonies’, and his ‘Collected Short Stories’ have recently been republished by HarperCollins. He has translated many works from French into English, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and the first volume of Jean Lacouture’s biography of Charles de Gaulle. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime’s contribution to literature. In the same year he was also awarded the CBE. In 1997 he was given an honorary doctorate of letters by Trinity College, Dublin. Patrick O’Brian died in January 2000.
Patrick O’Brian is best known for the Aubrey-Maturin series, acclaimed by Richard Snow in ‘The New York Times’ as ‘the best historical novels ever written’. Here is a list of the Aubrey-Maturin series in order of publication:
Master and Commander
Post Captain
HMS Surprise
The Mauritius Command
Desolation Island
The Fortune of War
The Surgeon’s Mate
The Ionian Mission
Treason’s harbour
The Far Side of the World
The Reverse of the Medal
The Letter of Marque
the Thirteen-gun Salute
The Nutmeg of Consolation
Clarissa Oakes
The Wine-dark Sea
The Commodore
The Yellow Admiral
The Hundred Days
Blue at the Mizzen
