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C. S. Forester was born in Cairo in 1899, where his father was stationed as a government official. He studied medicine at Guy's Hospital and, after leaving Guy's without a degree, he turned to writing as a career. His first success was Payment Deferred, a novel written at the age of twenty-four and later dramatized and filmed with Charles Laughton in the leading role. In 1932 Forester was offered a Hollywood contract, and from then until 1939 he spent thirteen weeks of every year in America. On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of Information and later he sailed with the Royal Navy to collect the material for The Ship. He made a voyage to the Bering Sea to gather material for a similar book on the United States Navy, and it was during this trip that he was stricken with arteriosclerosis, a disease which left him crippled. However, he continued to write and in the Hornblower novels created the most renowned sailor in contemporary fiction. He died in 1966.
Attention to detail is undoubtedly the backbone of good historical fiction and C S Forester's research was legendary. His seafaring novels featuring Horatio Hornblower and set during the Napoleonic Wars first appeared in 1937, but recent television adaptations attest to the enduring appeal of his most well known character. Collected here are four of his later outings - Flying Colours, The Commodore, Horatio in the West Indies and Lord Hornblower. (Kirkus UK)
