The novel′s stirring action follows on from that of The Hundred Days. Napoleon′s hundred days of freedom and his renewed threat to Europe have ended at Waterloo and Aubrey has finally, as the title suggests, become a blue level admiral. He and Maturin have - at last - set sail on their much postponed mission to Chile.

Vivid with the salty tang of life at sea, O'Brian's writing is as powerful as ever - whether he writes of naval hierarchies, night actions or of the most celebrated fictional friendship since that of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Blue at the Mizzen also brings alive the sights and sounds of revolutionary South America in a story as exciting as any O'Brian has written.