Sue Parrill, McFarland, ISBN 978 0 7864 3855 6

Sue Parrill, a retired head of the English department at Southeastern Louisiana University in the States has written an extremely comprehensive guide to depictions of British sea power in the Napoleonic era. The book provides summaries and analyses of more than 250 novels and nearly 30 films and also examines the extent to which they accurately reflect the history, mores and manners of the period, as well as the technical seamanship details. As well as a home reference the book will be a valuable addition to any public library

Donald Johnson and Juha Nurminen, Conway Maritime ISBN 978 1844 860401

Conway Maritime is renowned for publication of books of the highest quality in terms of scholarship and visual presentation. “The History of Seafaring”, however, sets a new standard. This magnificent book, five years in the making, celebrates two and a half millennia of man’s seaborne voyages from the Phoenicians and Chinese up to modern times, and features over 270 colour illustrations - manuscripts and rutters, portolans and sea charts, ship's instruments and artefacts, many never seen in print before. The book was launched in splendid style at the Royal Geographical Society.

William Falconer, Cadell 1815 (Reprint Chatham Publishing) ISBN 1861 762 046

One of the enduring classics that have come down to us from Nelson's time, wonderfully recreated from the original in its full detail. This is Burney's 1815 edition, the most comprehensive and informative, tapping resources unavailable to Falconer in 1769 to make this the definitive picture of Nelson's Navy at its apogee. It contains marine technology, data on technical aspects of shipbuilding, fitting and armaments, and the Navy's administrative and operational practices. The work should without doubt be in the possession of every serious student of the Royal Navy of the time.

John Blake, Conway Maritime, ISBN 1 84486 024 8

Splendidly evocative of Britain's sea inheritance, with details trawled from a thousand years of colourful nautical history, this is a book to open the eyes. Using the device of a circumnavigation, Blake shows how a mariner's perception of these shores has varied over the centuries, and includes fascinating detail of the charts and instruments that have contributed.

This wonderfully illustrated book features rare and detailed charts from the ages which will handsomely repay the armchair sailor poring over it with a magnifier.

Nicholas Tracy, Conway Maritime, ISBN 0851 779 255

Edited by an eminent naval historian, the annuals aim to cover all aspects of maritime warfare from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. With reviews, notes and original documents, the volumes are a valuable resource for the enthusiast as well as the more general reader.

Medicine Under Sail
By Zachary Friedenberg. Chatham. ISBN 1861 762 127

A fascinating account of the grim medical conditions - including diseases such as scurvy, beriberi, typhus, tropical fevers - that prevailed at sea - and how they were resolved. 

The book also examines the influence of Nelson in bringing the medical revolution in controlling disease to the attention of the Admiralty. Nelson, of course, had a long history of ill health and from an early age built a reputation for maintaining the health of his crew, even after having been at sea for periods of up to twenty months.

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
Edited by Peter Kemp, Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 282084

An absorbing reference work of the sea and the men who sail on it. As well as biographies, descriptions of major naval events and famous ships, there are articles on navigation, shipbuilding - and many other aspects of the sea world. There are also a large number of drawings and line diagrams that amplify the text.

It is the sort of book you open to look something up, and then are drawn into many other interesting entries.

John Blake, Conway Maritime, ISBN 0851 779 45X  

This superbly presented book will appeal to serious students of navigation as well as those interested in the documentation of man's expansion across the globe. Part of its fascination for the reader lies in the knowledge that these were the very charts pored over by anxious mariners and learned geographers both, and professional seafarers will certainly appreciate the great advances in navigation set out here.

Philip MacDougall, Shire Books, ISBN 0 7478 0033 2  

Britain's royal dockyards have a tradition of shipbuilding stretching back five hundred years. At one time they were the largest industrial employer in the world. This inexpensive publication gives an absorbing account of how the yards once performed their nationally vital tasks.