The man we love to love

The life and death of Nelson grip the imagination, not just because of the bicentenary of Trafalgar but because more is known about him than any other major figure in British history. He was a tireless correspondent, writing for hours with his left hand letters that would be kept in their hundreds because he was famous in his lifetime. These illuminate the complicated, contra- dictory character that continues to entice biographers, whether revisionists, hagio- graphers, bodice-rippers, amateur psychoanalysts, spinners of rattling good yarns, or serious historians, amongst the last being Roger Knight.

As the author was for many years deputy director and chief curator of the National Maritime Museum and is now professor of naval history at Greenwich University, he could be expected to command access to the more obscure sources of Nelsoniana, as seems to be borne out by some 300 pages of notes at the back of his hefty book.