The Command of the Ocean

I have never reviewed a book that has given me more pleasure … a masterpiece -- Kevin Myers * Mail on Sunday * A great work of history … A truly satisfying book that one puts down with regret … Nothing written during the past century, perhaps ever, approaches N. A. M. Rodger’s ambitious and masterly three-volume Naval History of Britain … it is likely to be regarded as one of the greatest works of historical scholarship of our age -- Paul Kennedy * The Sunday Times * Magisterial … triumphantly succeeds in moving the Royal Navy back to centre-stage in our islands’ story -- Andrew Roberts * Sunday Telegraph * Quite outstanding -- Sir Michael Howard * The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year * Stunning … By the time the book closes there is no doubt who holds command -- Simon Heffer * Literary Review * Monumental … Rodger is our finest naval historian -- Saul David * Daily Telegraph * Exciting and original … Here is that rarest of all historians, the expert with the generalist’s approach -- Geoffrey Moorhouse * Guardian * Truly in a class of its own … at turns witty, provocative and incisive … you finish it wishing for more -- F. J. M. Scott * History Today * Scholarly and erudite, but also a thrilling story, told with wit and verve * Economist, Books of the Year * Splendid … There is plenty of old-fashioned narrative in this encyclopaedic blockbuster … the writing advances across the pages like a squadron of dreadnoughts -- John Parfitt * Spectator *