Page 16 Book review by Ivor Kindle


Book Title: The Fort. Author: Bernard Cornwell, published by Harper Collins.


A different book from Bernard Cornwell in which he tells the story of the “second greatest naval defeat” in United States history. It is the Summer of 1779 and three small ships of the Royal Navy with seven hundred and fi fty British soldiers on board sail into Majabigwaduce Harbour, Massachusetts. Their mission is to build a fort from which to control the New England Seaboard.


The response from the Americans was to send forty-one ships and over nine hundred men with the orders to expel the British. The book is a fast moving exciting read. It is a game of cat and mouse played out in a gentlemanly but deadly manner. The book does in some way debunk the reputation of the famous American patriot Paul Revere who was immortalised in the Longfellow poem of 1861. The other ingredient of historical importance is that this particular action featured a young Lieutenant of the British Army one John Moore who is given later credit for forming the fi ghting style of the “light infantry” (Sharpe and all that). The battle that followed is a classic example of how personality and politics can disrupt the best laid plans of warfare. A cracking good read only let down by the less than adequate reference map in the book. I kept going back to look at details that just were not there.


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