The Surgeon's Mate

Product Description [Library Edition Audiobook CD in vinyl case.] [Read by Simon Vance] Stephen Maturin's days in British intelligence have gotten him into a whole mess of trouble in The Surgeon's Mate, seventh book in Patrick O'Brian's 'Aubrey-Maturin' adventure series. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by dispatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attention of two privateers soon becomes menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is tense -and unexpected in its culmination. Aubrey and Maturin must endure a foundering ship, capture by the French, and a less than pleasant stay in Paris' infamous Temple Prison. Meanwhile in Paris, Diana Villiers anxiously awaits Maturin's safe return. Review ''The best historical novels ever written.'' --New York Times Book Review''A mirror to Nelson's navy - compulsively readable.'' --Hammond Innes, author''Vividly detailed nineteenth-century settings and dramatic tension punctuated with flashes of wry humor make O'Brian's nautical adventure a splendid treat. '' --Publishers Weekly About the Author PATRICK O'BRIAN (1914-2000) was born Richard Patrick Russ in England. During the Second World War, he and his wife were involved in British secret-service activities. After the war, he changed his name to Patrick O'Brian and began his career as a novelist, biographer, and translator. He is the author of the acclaimed 'Aubrey-Maturin' tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. 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 awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin.