Dudley Pope


Dudley Bernard Egerton Pope was a British writer of both nautical fiction and history, most notable for his Lord Ramage series of historical novels. Greatly inspired by C.S. Forester, Pope was one of the most successful authors to explore the genre of nautical fiction, often compared to Patrick O'Brian.

Life

Dudley Pope was born in Ashford, Kent. By concealing his age he joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the merchant navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year. Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors. After he was invalided out the only obvious sign of the injuries he had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.
His first book, Flag 4, was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, Ramage appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
He took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.
Pope died 25 April 1997 in Marigot, Saint Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survive him.

Ramage series

Most of the novels are based on real events in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The year of these events is shown before the book title. The year of publication between 1965 and 1989 is shown after the title.
  1. 1796 – Ramage
  2. 1797 – Ramage and the Drumbeat
  3. 1797 – Ramage and the Freebooters
  4. 1797 – Governor Ramage R.N.
  5. 1798 – Ramage's Prize
  6. 1798 – Ramage and the Guillotine
  7. 1799 – Ramage's Diamond
  8. 1799 – Ramage's Mutiny
  9. 1800 – Ramage and the Rebels
  10. 1800 – The Ramage Touch
  11. 1800 – Ramage's Signal
  12. 1802 – Ramage and the Renegades
  13. 1803 – Ramage's Devil
  14. 1803 – Ramage's Trial
  15. 1803 – Ramage's Challenge
  16. 1805 – Ramage at Trafalgar
  17. 1806 – Ramage and the Saracens
  18. 1806 – Ramage and the Dido

    Yorke series

  19. Buccaneer
  20. Admiral
  21. Galleon
  22. Corsair

    Other novels

  23. Convoy
  24. Decoy

    Nonfiction

  25. Flag 4: The Battle of Coastal Forces in the Mediterranean
  26. The Battle of the River Plate
  27. 73 North: The Battle of the Barents Sea 1942
  28. Decision at Trafalgar
  29. England Expects
  30. The Black Ship
  31. Harry Morgan's Way: Biography of Sir Henry Morgan 1635–1688, Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd,
  32. The Great Gamble: Nelson at Copenhagen
  33. Life in Nelson's Navy
  34. The Devil Himself: The Mutiny of 1800 – this is the story of HMS Danae and the mutiny aboard her.
  35. At 12 Mr Byng Was Shot
  36. Guns