"N. A. M. Rodger provides reassessments of such famous figures as Pepys, Hawke, Howe, and St. Vincent. The particular and distinct qualities of Nelson and Collingwood are contrasted, and the world of the officers and men who made up the originals of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower is brought to life. Rodger's comparative view of other navies - French, Dutch, Spanish, and American - allows him to make a fresh assessment of the qualities of the British."--BOOK JACKET.

From the award-winning naval scholar N. A. M. Rodger comes the most revealing account yet of the mighty Georgian navy and British naval society of the eighteenth century.

A groundbreaking fantasy novel, The Wood Beyond the World tells the story of a young man, Golden Walter, who finds himself in a strange and frightening world after being abandoned by his wife and lost at sea. The novel takes the form of Walter’s quest for the visionary Maid that he sees at the beginning of his journey, and takes him from his failed marriage through temptation to emotional fulfillment. Set in Morris’s imaginative recreation of a medieval world, the novel is full of vivid imagery and surprising emotional realism. This edition collates for the first time the three early texts of the work. The introduction discusses the place of the book among Morris’s other prose romances, the events of his life, and his activities as a visual artist and a socialist. The appendices provide excerpts from Morris’s translation of Beowulf, other medieval texts read by Morris, and writings by his contemporaries on politics and aesthetics.

Hastily built at the onset of World War II to stop German U-boats from taking their toll on Allied shipping, the 110-foot wooden subchasers were the smallest commissioned warships in the U.S. Navy, yet they saw as much action as ships ten times their size. In every theater of war these “expendable” workhorses of the fleet escorted countless convoys of slow-moving ships through submarine-infested waters, conducted endless mind-numbing antisubmarine patrols, and were used in hundreds of amphibious operations. Some subchasers worked as gunboats to search for and destroy enemy barges. Others rescued downed airmen and retrieved drowning soldiers under heavy enemy fire. During the German occupation of Norway, three American-built subchasers and their Norwegian crews came to be known as “The Shetlands Bus” for their clandestine work as ferries—the only link between Norway and the free world. This book, written by the commander of one of the subchasers, defines their place in naval history and gives readers a taste of life on board the wooden warships. Ringing with authenticity, it describes the cramped quarters and unforgiving seas as well as the tenacious courage and close bonds formed by the men as they sought out the enemy and confronted nature. Long overshadowed by the larger, faster warships and more glamorous PT boats of World War II, subchasers have been mostly forgotten. This work restores the plucky little ships to their hard-earned status as significant members of the fleet.

Best of 2006: Vanguard published two major books, one focusing on Basil Gogos, and the other, a biography, on the career and sad life of the great Wallace Wood, WALLY's WORLD...a welcome addition to my bookcase. -- Innocent Bystander, January, 2007 WALLY'S WORLD (Vanguard), is a serious and sensitive look at an important artist. Recommended. -- Library Journal, January, 2007 WALLY'S WORLD is a fascinating book. I am stunned by the quality of Wood's fine art. -- Faith Middleton, WNPR, National Public Radio 11/17/06

The Wooden Bicycle is a handy reference for those who have a true passion for the beauty and aesthetics of the modern bicycle in the wooden form, and a strong belief in a more sustainable way of living.

The perfect guide to Nelson's Navy for all those with an interest in the workings of the great fleet.

It is over fifty years since the critics of the day acclaimed The Wooden Horse as a superbly told story of the most ingenious and daring escape of the Second World War. Millions of readers agreed, and the book became a modern classic. This revised and expanded edition tells the tale. The escape itself was conceived on classical lines. The Greeks built a wooden horse and by means of it got into the city of Troy; in 1943 two British officers built a wooden horse and by means of it got out of a German prison camp. Together with a third companion, they were the only British prisoners ever to escape and reach England from this camp, though many tried. It was Stalag Luft III, designed especially to hold the Germans' most prized captives – Allied aircrew – and considered to be escape-proof. The break from the camp itself is only part of the story. Once outside the wire the escapers were still faced with the problem of getting out of Germany. Fugitives in the midst of a watchful enemy population, they had many close shaves when disaster threatened to overwhelm them – adventures which the reader shares to the full. The fantastic nature of this enterprise, the patience, determination and endurance, above all the steel nerve it demanded from an undernourished physique, are rendered the more impressive by the manner of the telling. The characters are so surely drawn that they could not but be real. Throughout the book runs a vein of humour which alone made those days bearable. The warmth of human companionship born of privation, fear and a common purpose is vividly portrayed.