Europe Books

This book will provide multiple and in-depth frameworks for thinking about and managing services and services marketing. Adding to the frameworks are real-world examples from leading edge companies. The authors' depth of knowledge shines through in fitting these examples within the frames giving the reader insight as to how to apply each to their own particular scenario.

A very informative book, however it is easy to see that it was written by professors. The book does make basic business subjects more complex than needed.

With its comprehensive content, the book gives a fantastic overview of the important issues in services marketing today. There are many interesting and practical examples demonstrating the learning points. Well-balanced perspective. Besides giving readers the foundations of concepts and tools to use as services marketing managers, it also gives readers interesting tips on how to get around or leverage on current services strategies used by companies as customers.

As Services industries continue to become a larger and larger share of our global economy, the importance of Services Marketing can only grow. Wirtz and Lovelock have written an excellent book for understanding Services Marketing and backing it up with numerous excellent real world case examples. I have been in the Services industry for 21 years, but still learned a tremendous amount from the book and cases. The book makes it easy to grasp the key concepts and has a logical, smooth flow. If after reading this book and exploring the accompanying cases, you still don't have a thorough knowledge of Services Marketing, it is YOUR fault! I highly recommend this book and think it should be part of every MBA program.

This is such a well-written and well-organized book that you can simply read from cover-to-cover or jump into your interested chapters right away.

Not only does the authors present you with their in-depth coverage of the various services related topics, supplementary materials (papers, cases) from other excellent sources/authors make this an absolute encyclopedia of services marketing and a coherent contemporary literature for both novices and seasoned practitioners.

This is THE book for this very under-written and immensely critical topic of services marketing and an essential reading for the 60-80% of the workforce who are involved in the ever growing services sector.

I am a "newbie" to the longsword. For the last six months I have been studying on my own. I have used other books and publications to try to understand the guard and strike positions. These sources use "static" drawings or photos. This approach makes it difficult to visualize the full movement of a maneuver.

The authors of "Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword" converted photos to drawings. The drawings include arrows that represent the flow of the maneuver. It is much easier to get a complete visual image of the technique being discussed.

If you plan to "go it alone"; I would recommend this book above all others.

Doug C.
Austin, Texas

This is a seemingly accurate and easy to follow presentation. Manuals like this are hard to find. I was able to take it and within the space of a week employ many new gambits in my practice. I would have considered most of these beforehand to be inaplicable at speed or too awkward to quickly learn. Very direct and clearly illistrated. If you're part of any of the medieval re-enactment groups out there this book will be very rewarding.

This is an excellent book. It is a great place to start. Having said that, there is nothing like having a good Western Martial Arts instructor though.

This is an excellent interpretation of Ringeck's manual. It offers clear concise instruction, guiding the reader and practitioner towards a very good understanding of the German Longsword combat system. Excellent read. The glossary alone is exceptional, explaining common and relatively obscure terms in comprehensible language.

This is David Lindholm in a subject he knows and masters. The book is well written and concise, the illustrations and interpretations sound and easy to grasp. An excellent addition to any WMA library.

This gorgeous giant book, measuring in at 16" x 12", capture the beauty and uniqueness of Ireland through spectacular photographs. At times in this book, not only do you see a panoramic photograph spanning two 16" wide pages, some actually extend further through a folding flap to measure over 38" wide! In addition to the beautiful photographs the authors have included detailed written descriptions.

People of all ages that are interested in the history, landscape, and culture of Ireland will thoroughly enjoy this book. The list price is $75 according to the inside flap, making it a bargain at the current Amazon price.

This is the best photo book of Ireland I have seen over ten years, and the text is excellent.

This is a great book to give to someone who will be traveling to Ireland in the future, has visited before, or is just a huge fan of this amazing country and wants a good coffee table book. The photos are gorgeous and really showcase the beauty of the Emerald Isle. There's also a great variety of photos: not just from one area of the country. It also gives you a bit of historical background. There are several pages that fold out to reveal huge panoramic shots. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Ireland. It really is spectacular!

First of all, please note that this is a coffee table-type book. It is oversized and oddly-shaped. So if that bothers you, steer clear.

BUT the size is very appropriate to the pictures! It's a large-rectangular book that fits the panoramic wide-angle photography inside of it! The photos are intensely colored and the paper used in side the book is a thicker, glossy high-quality paper. Some of the most gorgeous photographs of Irelands landscapes, castles and towns are in this book. It also includes a bit of history.

FYI... the book normally comes with a slip-cover that has the same cover design printed on it that the actual book cover underneath has. Nice touch. A lot of books of this fashion do not have the same cover printed on the actual book itself, but only the slip-cover.

Very nice. If you love photography or Ireland...or both....this is the book for you!

I bought this book because my dad's side of the family is Irish and I'd hoped to one day go. The book is a gorgeous addition to my photography book collection...and my desire to go to Ireland has been upgraded from 'one day hope to go' to 'can't wait to go!'.
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe For The Senses - A Photographic Journal"

I read Holocaust memoirs because of my need to learn more of what my people went through during this time of hell on earth. How hard it must be to write down and re-live this part of one's life. After reading many such memoirs, Ruth Elias's story was extremely powerful to me, in that she is a woman (like me), married (like me) and a mother (like me). She survived through the most horrific and unspeakable horror that can befall a human being. How many of us could survive under these conditions, and yet continue to live, really live, and experience more of the good in other people and in life? She was capable of literally starting over and telling others about her experience. What a wonderful, strong and intelligent woman she is! Don't miss this one. I'm going to make it a permanent part of my book collection.

This memoir goes to show that, despite what some people might say, it really is true that no two Shoah memoirs and experiences are exactly alike. Rutinko Huppner (now Ruth Elias) grew up in a rather wealthy family in the former Czechoslovakia, and after her young mother divorced her father when she was 6 years old, Rutinko and her older sister Edith were raised by a single father, with help from their uncle Hugo (their father's brother) and his wife Irma, along with a whole slew of grandparents and other aunts and uncles. Later on their father remarried, though Ruth and her sister, teenagers by then, really resented their stepmother and tried everything they could to make her life miserable. Being wealthy, Rutinko and Edith had access to things that their friends, neighbors, and classmates could only dream about, such as sausage for school lunch, a car, being driven to and from school, vacations in the mountains, musical instruments and music lessons, and a lot of other great stuff. They even had the money and connections to get permission and papers to leave Czechoslovakia for England after the Nazi takeover in 1939, though she and her sister decided not to go through with it due to their father's ill health and wanting the family to stay together through this difficult time.

The family were able to go into hiding in a few different cities, where they enjoyed a relatively secure and happy life. Ruth and Edith even found the time to have romances and to be active in a secret Jewish youth group. However, there was eventually a raid on the area, and Ruth, Edith, their father and stepmother, and their aunt Irma were taken away to Theresienstadt (Terezin). Their uncle Hugo wasn't taken because he was very sick in the hospital and dying of cancer. Once in the large ghetto, they found themselves separated from their father, since men and women were quartered separately. However, shortly before they arrived, Ruth's boyfriend Koni and his own family had been deported, and this relationship ended up saving her life, since if Koni hadn't married her while she was sick in the hospital, she would have been deported along with the rest of her family when they were. From this point on out Ruth was along but for the friends she made, and she and Koni weren't even able to properly live together as husband and wife for some time. However, even in the ghetto love blossomed, and eventually Ruth discovered she was pregnant. After doing absolutely everything to try to find a doctor who would give her an abortion, she ended up being deported when she was two months pregnant, and was one of the few women who survived in that condition instead of being murdered on arrival. A lot of circumstances came together to save her life and to keep her alive even in spite of her condition, many of them decisions she had only a split second to make if she wanted to live. Eventually she had to make the most difficult and heartrending decision of all when her baby was born, so that the infamous "Dr." Mengele wouldn't kill them both.

Once she was no longer pregnant, Ruth was viewed as a healthy fit young worker, and was transferred, along with her friend Berta, who had also been pregnant, to Taucha, a subcamp of Buchenwald. In this camp, they were put into a special privileged work detail, which accounted for their eventual survival. After being liberated, their group of Czechs made their way home and found that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, their loved ones just were not coming home and that they'd had to start over again from scratch. I was surprised to learn that many young people like Ruth and her boyfriend Kurt just lived together after the war instead of getting married, since they had to wait two years before their missing spouses could legally be considered dead, even though everyone knew what had most likely befallen them. Ruth also had to make the difficult decision to divorce her husband, who had survived as well, because they'd just grown apart and she felt he hadn't acted very appropriately towards her when they were in the Family Camp at Auschwitz. A few relatives came back, but no one from her immediate family. It was with this new family of two that she left Czechoslovakia for Israel shortly after independence was declared, and just in the nick of time, before the Czech borders became closed.

Mrs. Elias went through some of the worst things imaginable (a number of times she even writes about how hard it was to just almost matter-of-factly type such heavy words like "None survived" or "They were probably all gassed"), and yet she came through everything alive and determined to start again, to make a new life for herself in her own homeland, to make sure that no one ever looked down on her or abused her ever again. It just goes to show that the human spirit is an amazing thing.

This book never lags and never loses your interest. It is very well written. It is an inspiring and insightful account of a woman's courage and determination to survive the Holocaust. I only wish the book continued because I wanted more. Very highly recommended.

I finished reading Triumph of Hope this morning, after starting it two days ago. I simply couldn't put it down. The author, Ruth Elias, is nothing less than extraordinary. The way that she expresses her memories, through her style of writing and description, helps us to get one step closer to understanding an experience, which we can never really comprehend, because we were not there. Mrs Elias's life is remarkable, and through reading her book I thoroughly believe that she is a genuinely lovely, kind and warm person. It is such a tragedy that the Jewish people of her generation went through turmoil and absolute hell. But through this book, Ruth's aims - to spread the message that the discrimination and racism they experienced should never be repeated - are being achieved when a single person reads her book. Her message is being spread over the world, and I am glad that i was able to read Triumph of Hope. I intend to share this book with my family and friends, so that they can read of such an incredible woman, and a generation of people who refused to give in. I sincerely recomend this book to anyone who is thinking of buying this, for themselves or for others.

I have read dozens of Holocaust memoirs, and although they are always touching and intense, none have caused me to feel such grief for the author as this one. I literally had to stop reading and bawl my eyes out for a good 10 minutes. This woman endured so much, and with such grace, that you cannot help but be invested in her story. Highly recommended.

Seriously, I think a lot of this book. The artwork is wonderful; the story is wonderful. We had to buy this copy because we wore out our first one.

Another great book by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson. Nice story and great artwork. Recommended if you already own and like Ferdinand.

So glad it's back...this classic book on how different people can get along. Not just for kids.

"Wee Gillis" is a classic of children's literature, and this is an excellent new reprint. There is no dustjacket, but the book has a very strong cardboard cover and good quality paper.
The book combines an interesting commentary on the cultures of the Scottish highlands and lowlands with a simple and rather old-fashioned story of how a boy takes his place in the adult world.
The black and white illustrations complement the text beautifully, and almost tell the story on their own.

Originally published in 1938, this one is a delight to see back in print thanks to New York Review Books. The Scottish setting is charming and the central message, to be who you are, is important. Not content to be a hunter like his father's family or a farmer like his mother's family, Wee Gillis finds his own place in this world as a bagpiper. Baby boomers will be familiar with Robert Lawson's illustrations from such children's classics as Rabbit Hill, Ben And Me and The Story of Ferdinand, also written by Munro Leaf. I adore this book so much I named my dear and very independent Cairn Terrier puppy Wee Gillis.

In addition to reader reviews, here's what the media are saying:

"...funny, touching, insightful, The Wee Mad Road is well worth traveling, if only from the comfort of your favorite armchair."
Neill Kennedy Ray, editor, SCOTTISH LIFE magazine, Summer 2008

"If you're looking for a respite from politics and war, you can lose yourself in The Wee Mad Road...so idyllic it'll make you Highland green with envy."
Mary Ann Grossman, book reviewer, Saint Paul Sunday PIONEER PRESS, May 4, 2008

"The Wee Mad Road is kind of like Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, with rotten weather and lots of whisky."
Bob Gilbert, columnist, VILLAGER, May 7, 2008

"...a two-year adventure of shearing sheep, learning folk songs and befriending locals. The whole romantic endeavor is captured in The Wee Mad Road."
Kerri Westenberg, travel editor, Minneapolis Sunday STAR TRIBUNE, June 22, 2008

"...gloriously whimsical...This is great fun!"
Hamish Coghill, book reviewer, SCOTTISH LIFE magazine, Autumn 2008

Plainly written but very true to the scottish people, countryside, and a wonderful view of what their life was making this dramatic change to living. Really enjoyed due to the insight into the scottish village life and way of interaction.

Fun read if you are into Scotland!...and I certainly am! So I'm really enjoying it. If you are looking for an instruction manual on how to move to a foreign land I don't believe this book will give you all the information that you need, but I don't think the writers intended that. It's just a short journal/story of their experience. I am finding it very entertaining. And Mrs. Maloney's sketches are such a bonus! I believe if you have a love for Scotland you will enjoy this book. And I believe if you are contemplating taking a big step in your life this couples story will be an inspiration to you to just go for it! (...and don't forget to journal your journey so that others can enjoy your experiences too!)

I read about this book in the St. Paul(MN)Pioneer Press

We have a Scottish daughter-in-law. We went to visit her parents on the Isle of Skye after she married our son. I fell in love with Scotland, especially the Highlands.

I ordered this book for my daughter-in-law for her birthday and she was delighted with it. She knew the location of Coicagh, had been there and knew how to pronounce it. I picked the book up at our library and am enjoying it immensely. Anyone born in Scotland or it was their birthplace, can't help but identify with these Highland Scots: Warm, generous, patient with Americans, especially. To me Scotland could be heaven and I would be satisfied.

Wow! I felt like I was there. I have been to Scotland before, but not quite that far northwest. Now I see what I missed. The Frieda chapter was priceless! It was nice to read both authors' comments. It gave a well rounded picture of the people and terrain of the area. I felt as though I were there. The writing is so vivid, that I felt the wind and cold rain. The life the authors had is quickly dying, and it was wonderful that they were able to take that time in their life, to live a somewhat slower pace, where you had time to "smell the flowers" and appreciate their neighbors. The pictures were excellent as well, and easily showed Scottish life and scenery.

Loved it, loved it, loved it. I am not a teenager anymore but I still loved it. I could relate. I read it in one evening and wished that there was book 2 to read. Please keep writing these great, funny books.

Finally! My 3rd-grade daughter used to dread reading, and the first book "Matt the Brat" got her hooked! This is the first time she has wished that there were more books in a series. Carol Weston, please write more!!

I LOVED this book. it was great. all of the Melanie Martin books are great. In this one she goes with her parents to Spain. her dad has business in Spain to do so her mom used frequent flyer miles to have the whole family go with him. In Spain Melanie's mom meets up with her old boyfriend Antonio. When there. melanie falls for Antonio's son Miguel. In this book many adventures come in with love between Melanie and Miguel. Also surprisling Matt the Brat helps out to keep Melanie and Miguel alone or gives Melanie tips, like when Miguel's cousin comes and Melanie thought it was Miguel's girlfriend. This book was great and I'd recommend it for all ahges.

I bought this book from amazon.com and read it the day it came. It's so sweet to see Melanie in love! Stocked with bullfights, fireworks and of course, ROMANCE, this book rocks! It's almost like being in Europe yourself! This book is a must-read!

The Martin family band together for a two-week Spring break vacation as seen through the eyes of 11-year-old Melanie. Readers join Melanie through the pain and confusion of first love as she fills her senses with the compelling Spanish landscape. This is an amusing linguistic travel adventure written in diary format. Because the author phonetically spells the Spanish words Melanie learns, I found myself saying some of the words aloud and learning quite a few things along the way. An appendix of all the foreign words Ms. Weston used would have been an added benefit to the book. With Love From Spain, Melanie Martin will make you want to take your kids on a European adventure of your own, no matter where you live in the world! The potential for this book is it's "that's me" value for Tweeners making the transition beyond being big kids.

The only reason I put this book down was to reflect. This story is so important - I will do as another reviewer suggests - "This book is to be read and passed down to our children to read.
Very powerful.
A suspensful read on a horrific truth.

The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir is the chilling personal testimony and memoir of the daily life of George Lucius Salton, a Jewish man who survived the living hell of a Nazi concentration camp. An intense, gripping tale of hatred and power used as a brutal club to perpetrate atrocity, and the author's witness and narration of the unspeakable, The 23rd Psalm is an welcome and invaluable contribution to the growing library of Holocaust Studies. Providing powerful refutations of anti-semitic revisionist historians, these personal and eye-witness accounts are all the more significant in view of the holocaust generation now reaching an age where they are rapidly passing from among us.

The 23rd Psalm is a story that has been imprinted upon my soul, that will remain there as long as I live. I share in the sentiments of Pat's review; I was both compelled to stay in its pages by day and visited with its images at night in my sleep, somehow sharing in this man's plight.

Thank you Mr. Salton for allowing others, for allowing me, into the most private and intimate and horrific memories of your life. I esteem you, and those like you, with the utmost honor. May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you my friend.

It must have taken the author a great deal of inner strength and pain to come to terms with these horrible happenings and be able to put them down on paper to share with all those that read this book. It was amazing that one so young would be quick enough to call on survival skills at the right moment. Though some, of course, was luck, this author displayed a natural instinct to survive throughout his nightmare.

This is an incredible accounting of the atrocities of WWII. I was unable to put the book down. It is extremely well written.

Not knowing much about this period, I was quite interested to find out more on this era.

This book gives us an over view of what is known of the time. I was stunned to find how little is known of this time. What we do know is that the period went though some dramatic changes? However how we don't know. There are unfortunately few written sources of the period and the archaeologist have little at present to help us.

An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons A.D. 400-600
Christopher A. Snyder
The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998
ISBN 0-271-01780-5

This is a wonderful book to bring to life a cohesive mosaic of the two centuries that followed the removal of Britain from the Roman Empire to the arrival of the papal mission under Augustine in 597.

Published within the past few years, this book bring together many of the latest elements in the trail of King Arthur available to the modern scholar. His book is filled with the most credible theories based on academic consensus, drawing from the most recent translations and comparisons of ancient sources.

What is most singulary worthy of this book is the lack of judgement on the topic of Arthur and Merlin. After laying out the entirety of the context within which Arthur and Merlin may have lived, these two characters are dealt with only in a brief three page appendix. Snyder describes the historical basis for the two characters then ends his brief discussion without trying to postulate who they actually might have been. "What the historian can contribute, however, is a better understanding of the period and place in which Arthur and Merlin may have lived for those who wish to pin down these legendary figures to time and space."

Indeed! This is precisely what he has done. Anyone interested in playing Pendragon or reading Arthurian literatute will appreciate how he frames the era in terms of these "tyrants" -- self-made men who usurped traditional authority to re-establish order and deal with the chaos of the dissolution of the Roman empire.

As a scholar what I like is that the author has made a thorough documentation of where he gathered all of his information. This book itself is short, at 260 pages of text including appendices. Yet it then has 124 pages of rich and curious notes and a lengthy bibliography from which he cited his information.

Christopher Snyder is Associate Professor of History and Chair Department of History and Politics at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

It is very refreshing to read a book about this period of British history that is not obsessed with the Arthurian legend, interesting though that is. Mr Snyder uses the little written evidence there is from the 410-600AD period to try and form a picture of the conditions at the time. The second part of the book discusses the archaeological evidence in depth and the final part constructs a coherent picture of what life must have been like in post Roman Britain using the evidence of the first two sections. Arthur and Merlin are mentioned in an appendix and at a few points within the text but only to point out that the historical evidence cannot say one way or the other whether these personalities existed.

Mr Snyder has settled on the title "An Age of Tyrants" to describe the era as being preferrable to "Sub-Roman Britain". I'm not sure if this title is adequate but it is superior to the somewhat demeaning "Sub-Roman" description. This period was clearly not as savage as has previously been thought.

My only minor criticism is that I would have preferred to see more illustrations of the archaeological sites and artefacts but overall I found this an extremely interesting book that was difficult to put down.

Christopher Snyder says the inhabitants of what is known today as England, Scotland, and Wales would not have called themselves Britons before the arrival of the Romans. In pre-Roman days they would have been known by names associated with their tribal affiliations. Many of the individuals might have referred to themselves as 'Combrogi' or 'Cymry' the latter a Welsh term referring to friendship and/or love of place. The Romans named the "big" island across the "English" channel Brittania. About 400 years after they arrived, the Romans formally withdrew from Britain and left behind a changed place (and probably a few ex-Romans) -- including the name by which the inhabitants knew themselves.

For a long while scholars referred to the period following the departure of "official" Rome and the final "conquest" of Britain by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes the 'dark ages'. More recently, scholars have referred to this era, which stretches from about 400-600 A.D. 'sub-Roman Britain'. Christopher Snyder says he would prefer to call it the Brittonic Age, although his book title names it AN AGE OF TYRANTS.

Snyder's book is divided into three parts. First, he explores the written record -- the writings of Britains Patrick (5th Century) and Gildas (6th Century) and other non-Britonic witnesses. He discusses Latin terms from the extant written material, such as the word "tyrant" which was construed differently by different people in different places speaking different languages. Snyder suggests the "tyrants" described by St. Jerome or the Honorable Bede may not have been as badly behaved as the negative connotation of theit term suggests. In fact, Snyder says the tyrants distant churchmen described may have been more akin to the "tigern" or Celtic lord.

In the second part of his book, Synder discusses the archeological record of the Brittonic Age--which has been overlooked and undervalued as it falls between the rich material record of the Roman (Cirencester, Bath) and Anglo-Saxon (Sutton Hoo) periods. I found this section of the book illuminating as Snyder has systmatically inventoried and synthesized the evidence from a many "digs" into a coherent whole.

In the third section of his book, Snyder uses the material from parts 1 and 2 to describe life in the Brittonic Age in various kinds of settlements (towns, villas, forts, etc.) and the social structure of the people including aspects of government, religion, military, and economic. He says the Britains were a Romanized-Christian people who did not revert back to the tribal behavior that existed before the coming of the Romans.

Snyder is a professor at Marymount University and for all I know he is a member of a religious order, but having graduated from Georgetown University myself, I know that religious affiliation does not mean one cannot be objective. However, Snyder's conclusion that pagan ways disappeared in the Brittonic Age as the population became Christianized may not be exactly accurate.

Based on a reading of the material in Snyder's book and other material, I suspect Celtic ways and the Christian ways merged into an entirely new religion. According to Snyder, Pope Gregory suggested at one point that as the clergy converted pagans they should adapt "pagan temples and rituals to Christian usage in nonviolent ways." I think that is exactly what happened, and I think that explains in part why The Blessed Virgin Mary became so important in Great Britain--which Snyder, a professor at MARYmount might have noted.

I must admit, like so many others, I was originally drawn to the post-Roman period by the "historical King Arthur." But the period is a rich and diverse one, worthy of study in its own right--not only as "Arthur's Britain." In this incredible volume, Chris Snyder--probably the greatest expert on post-Roman Britain alive today, in my opinion--paints a picture of Britain that is anything but a "sub-Roman" "Dark Age." If you ever raised an eyebrow when your history textbook skipped from the Romans in 400 CE to the Anglo-Saxons in 800 CE, then you should read this book. If I had begun with a volume like this when I began my foray into post-Roman Britain, my how farther along I'd be now!

The Bellerophon -- or Billy Ruffian to Jack Tar, who wasn't familiar with Greek mythology -- is, or at least used to be, a familiar ship to English schoolchildren, because it was the ship that collected Napoleon on his final failure and used to be regularly illustrated in textbooks.

In David Cordingly's deft and straightforward biography, the Billy Ruffian turns out to have had an unusually interesting career, with even some echoes still reverberating in the 21st century.

Cordingly does not attempt to retell the history of the Napoleonic wars, or even just the naval wars, through the experiences of the ship, but he does nevertheless give a concise review of the naval strategy and most of the important battles. Billy Ruffian took a brave part in three of the most important -- the Glorious First of June, the Nile and Trafalgar.

Billy Ruffian was badly knocked about in all three, actually being driven from the field at the Nile, although only after giving a stout fight to a much bigger French ship.

Although slugfests in the Age of Sail could be very bloody, not many men died in the Bellerophon's fights: four at the First of June, 49 at the Nile, 27 at Trafalgar. Compared with the butcher's bills presented at places like Waterloo and Borodino, seapower was a cheap way of dealing with tyrants.

The heroes of the Billy Ruffian also were true Britons. Although a myth has grown up that European ships' crews were cosmopolitan, one captain of Bellerophon wrote down a unique list of the origins of all his sailors. (Why he did this odd thing is unknown.) Fully half were English and most of the rest Irish, Scots and Welsh. Many foreign places were represented in the crew, but only a small proportion were foreigners.

After the war, Bellerophon was converted into a floating prison, and Cordingly's description of this episode is as interesting as all the war stories.

The part of Billy Ruffian's history that still resonates concerns what to do about Napoleon. The situation was very similar to that faced by the American administration today, and the outcome was similar, too.

Napoleon's status was uncertain. At times he wanted to be considered a prisoner-of-war, at other times not. The British Cabinet was convinced that, whatever his legal status, he had to be put away. In this, they were undoubtedly correct.

The interference of lawyers in matters that were beyond the scope of law was then, as now, a danger to innocent lives, and while Bellerophon never ran from an armed enemy, she did flee in the night from a lawyer, who was thought to be carrying a writ of habeas corpus. (In fact, it was only a subpoena in a civil suit.)

In the end, Napoleon went to St. Helena, the Guantanamo Bay of 1815.

"The Billy Ruffian" is a satisfying ship biography, with one exception. It is lavishly illustrated, as might be expected from Cordingly, formerly Keeper of Pictures at the National Maritime Museum. Unfortunately, in the paperback edition the reproductions are too small to be examined. The hardcover edition (which I have not seen) is probably, therefore, the better bargain.

This is an absolutley fabulous book and read, for both the knowledgeable reader of the 19th century Royal Navy or the novice regarding that era. There is naval history, social commentary and history, as well as of adventure and seamanship.

A great book to read, keep and read again.

I enjoyed this biography of a 74-gun ship of the line that was everywhere during the Napoleonic wars. He gives interesting information on shipbuilding, life at sea, the Cadiz and Brest blockades, the battles (Glorious First of June, Nile and Trafalgar), the Admiralty and Navy Board, press gangs, prison hulks, Lord Nelson, etc.

The problem is his very sympathetic treatment of Napoleon. It's one thing to say he was a brilliant battlefield commander. But it's inexcusable to fail to add that he was a ruthless tyrant who drenched Europe in blood and kept it at war for over 20 years. After Waterloo, Napoleon surrendered to the Bellerophon and Cordingly seems to agree that the British were somehow hardhearted in exiling him to St. Helena, rather than giving him what he wanted--a nice cottage in the English countryside. What he deserved was a rope at the nearest yardarm.

Instead of the usual biography of a famous captain or battle, Mr. Cordingly treats us to the life of a famous ship of the line - Bellerophon.
From a protracted birth in the slips of the Medway, through the highs and lows of the American and European wars, to an ignominious return to her birthplace, we read the history of the Georgian Navy as written by her commanders, officers and crew,
The author's painstaking research of the Admiralty records and Naval chronicles breathes life into what could have been a simple catalog of events and postings ... first-hand accounts, log-books and extracts from letters flesh out the bare bones of ports and locations, while the background of contemporary historical events puts Bellerophon's role into full perspective - this is the real stuff that Forester and O'Brian drew on to create their adventures.
Why Bellerophon? There are plenty of other famous ships, but none had the fortune to engineer the collection and safe conduct of the most famous and wanted man in the world from his enemies in France. This was to be the high point of a long and distinguished career, as immediately afterwards she was decommissioned and spent her last 21 years as a prison hulk.
An informative and absorbing read.

Veteran scribe of the seas David Cordingly has wrought a spellbinding biography of HMS Bellerophon, "The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the downfall of Napoleon: The Biography of a Ship of the Line, 1782-1836", one of the most important warships in Great Britain's Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. "Billy Ruffian", as she was know affectionately by her sailors and much of the fleet, played a pivotal role at three of the most important battles during these wars with Revolutionary France and Napoleon's French Empire; The Glorious First of June, the Battle of the Nile, and Trafalgar. At the Glorious First of June HMS Bellerophon fought decisively against a French fleet nearly twice the size of the British fleet commanded by the elderly Admiral Lord Howe, the Royal Navy's most distinguished fleet commander at the onset of the French Revolutionary wars. At the Battle of the Nile, HMS Bellerophon fought a fierce duel with the larger, more powerful French ship-of-the-line L'Orient, the flagship of the French fleet, only to be rendered a drifting hulk with the loss of much of its crew killed or wounded, a short time before L'Orient blew up and sank; an explosion which was heard twenty miles away. And then, of course, was Bellerophon's heroic struggle against French and Spanish warships at Trafalgar, made most memorable by the death of her captain during the battle's climax. Yet the most important episode in her celebrated career occurred at the close of the Napoleonic wars, as the warship which carried Napoleon Bonaparte back to England at the end of his "Hundred Days", mere weeks after his defeat at Waterloo by an Allied army commanded by the British general Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Tragically, Bellerophon's distinguished career as a Royal Navy ship-of-the-line would end shortly thereafter, with the last two decades of her life spent as a prison hulk. Coordingly is a captivating, mesmerizing writer who has created a splendid biography of this important, yet forgotten, warship. Fans of naval warfare and of course, C. S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian, will find this memorable book well worth reading.