PATRICK O'BRIAN: A Very Private Life

The bestselling novelist of the Aubrey-Maturin series was Patrick O'Brian, and this intimate biography is written by his stepson, Nikolai Tolstoy. Well researched and bounding in humanity and compassion, the book reads like a thriller as O'Brian develops into the great novelist he became. An exquisite novelist, translator and biographer, O'Brian moved in 1949 to Collioure in the South of France where he led a secluded life with his wife Mary and wrote all his major works. The 20 books that make up the beloved Aubrey-Maturin series earned him the epithet 'Jane Austen at sea' for their authentic depiction of Nelson's navy, and the relationship between Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. Outside his triumphant popularity in fiction, O'Brian also wrote erudite biographies of Picasso and Joseph Banks, as well as publishing translations of Simone de Beauvoir and Henri Charrière. The book draws upon Tolstoy's close relationship with his stepfather as well as his notebooks, letters and photographs, reproduced to the best quality given their age in this paperback edition. It is fascinating to see how much the author put into the characters of himself - the cyclical depression, the blind rages, the sometimes cruel wit, the intelligence, the capacity for love and the courage. Tolstoy describes well the hardscrabble existence of the first few years and the sheer bloody grind of making a living as a professional author. 576pp, paperback, photos.