Cochrane

From the bestselling author of Under the Black Flag comes the definitive biography of the swashbuckling nineteenth-century maritime hero upon whom Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower are based. Nicknamed le loup des mers ("the sea wolf") by Napoleon, Thomas Cochrane was one of the most daring and successful naval heroes of all time. Patrick O'Brian, C.S. Forester, and Captain Marryat all based their literary heroes on the man. But, as David Cordingly reveals, Cochrane far exceeded the daring and romantic exploits of his fictional counterparts. In this fascinating account of Cochrane's extraordinary life, Cordingly unearths startling new details about the real-life "Master and Commander" -- from his heroic battles against the French navy to his role in the liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and the stock exchange scandal that forced him out of England and almost ended his naval career. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, his own travels, and the kind of original research that distinguished The Billy Ruffian, Cordingly tells the rip-roaring story of the archetypal romantic hero who conquered the seas and, in the process, defined his era. John Lee has read more than 100 audiobooks in almost every conceivable genre, from Charles Dickens to Patrick O'Brian, and from the very real life of Napoleon to the entirely imagined lives of sorcerers and swashbucklers. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit.