====================================== !!! STOP-PRESS: In under 3 three weeks from launch KYDD broke into the top 20 hardback fiction best-sellers in the UK !!! ====================================== "THE BOSUN'S CHRONICLE" --- emailed to Shipmates around the world the first week of each month --- VOL.1, ISSUE 1, MAY 2001 Avast there - and welcome aboard from the bosun of the Thomas Kydd Shipmates' Network! 1) DECKLOG 2) HANDS TO MUSTER 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH 4) THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 5) ON THE STOCKS 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS 7) DAYS OUT 8) REPORTS ==================== 1) DECKLOG --- events and activities --- April 5 was certainly all a-taunto! KYDD was launched at a splendid party in London at Admiralty House, Whitehall, which was the official residence of the First Lord of the Admiralty from 1788 until 1964. Over 100 guests raised a tot of rum to KYDD and the following books in the series. The rest of the month was very busy with interviews on radio, TV and with print journalists. On April 20, Julian spoke at a Literary Dinner in Southwell in the county of Nottinghamshire. This was held in the Great Hall, part of the glorious 900-year-old Minster. In May Julian has been invited to speak at three Literary Festivals. He is looking forward to the opportunity of meeting readers after the talks. +Brighton Festival+ Brighton, which was at the heart of Regency England, is host to England's largest mixed arts festival. Hear Julian's views on "History as Fiction" Tuesday May 8, 5:30pm at the Pavilion Theatre, New Road Tickets are available by phone 01273 709709 or via email +Bury St Edmunds Festival+ Bury St Edmunds is a premier arts event attracting thousands of people to the historic market town in the heart of Heritage Suffolk Julian is speaking about writing KYDD followed by questions and book signing. Thursday May 24, 1pm in the Athenaeum,in the centre of Bury St Edmunds. The Athenaeum is a beautifully conserved building that dates from the time of Thomas Kydd. Contact +Hay-on-Wye+ Hay is a tiny market town in the Black Mountains of the Welsh Marches. Population is just over 1300 people and it boasts 39 bookshops! For ten days a year 50,000 book lovers converge on Hay from all over the world. The Independent newspaper describes it thus: "The world's best writers at the world's best festival." Further details Julian will be talking about his new career as a writer and the genesis of the book. Saturday May 26, 11:30am. ==================== 2) HANDS TO MUSTER --- Behind KYDD is a great team; each month "The Bosun's Chronicle" goes behind the scenes to talk to one of the Shipmates who have been involved in some aspect of the book --- This month we feature the world-renowned marine artist, Geoff Hunt, who has produced the powerful cover art for the first book, and who will, we are delighted to announce, be working on future books as well. Geoff Hunt RSMA, lives in Wimbledon, England, with his wife and two sons. His work is on permanent exhibition at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth and his work has hung in several U.S. galleries including the John Stobart Gallery in Boston, Hanover Square Gallery and Gallery Americana in California. Patrick O'Brian (whose books also featured covers by Geoff) wrote: "his paintings are perfectly accurate in period and detail but very far from merely representational, often suffused with a light reminiscent of Canaletto . . ." When asked to talk about "Coming Aboard a 98-Gun Ship" the original painting he created for the cover of KYDD Geoff said that asking an artist to put feelings into words was a bit like asking a writer to explain the creative process with illustrations! Nevertheless, he was happy to chat about KYDD from his studio in Wimbledon. +Bosun. How did you go about conceptualising the cover art for KYDD? +GH. I was interested in the idea of echoing the basic theme of the book which I took to be "starting out" - an introduction to the world of Nelson's navy. I gave this visual form by showing a motley collection of press-gangees clambering up the tall, technically complex side of a 98-gun ship. And at the top awaits a whole new system of authority, personified in the smartly turned out NCO. +Bosun. Did the publisher have a pre-conceived idea of the cover? +GH. The concept ideas were both mine (I had an alternate one which took the same starting-out theme from a different angle, with "Duke William" weighing anchor at first light.) +Bosun. Your work reflects meticulous attention to detail and I know you use models and have read scores of manuscripts and logs of the period. How did you do your research for KYDD? +GH. Mainly ship plans in this case. I believe an illustrator must recreate in paint the ship and gear of the period, a technical task akin to that of a ship model maker and like the good model maker accuracy in this is a passion for me. +Bosun. I believe you are working on the cover for ARTEMIS, the second book in the series. Can you give us a hint as to how that will look? +GH. In one particularly powerful passage Julian explores the tension, excitement and apprehension of Southern Ocean sailing. I'm planning to do the same. +Bosun. You have experienced the sea - and her moods - first hand when you took a year off and sailed around the Mediterranean. Was there anything in KYDD that has perhaps sparked an idea for a painting at some point in the future? +GH. My sea-going experience is limited to small-boat sailing the Channel coasts, some of the western Mediterranean and a bit of big-ship cruising in the Caribbean. If I need inspiration for the Great Southern Ocean or a major storm I just rely on personal terror. KYDD of course has already inspired two paintings - the one for the cover and the as yet unpainted alternative. A Geoff Hunt website is ==================== 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH --- Every month Julian talks about a website with sea links --- This month it is the King George Fund for Sailors - +Bosun. Why have you chosen the King George Fund for Sailors website? +JS. This charity does splendid work across a wide spectrum of welfare need and to me their website is a real reminder of the debt we owe to our seafarers. +Bosun. What particularly impressed you? +JS. It was the range of activities KGFS contributes to - Royal Navy charities, Merchant Navy charities, Fishermen's charities, the Gulf Trust and the South Atlantic Fund. +Bosun. What else would you like to mention? +JS. I think it is the courage of Terry Gooding, an ex Chief Petty Officer, who has told his story on the website. He is still only 41 but, due to ill health, is having to rebuild his life away from the sea. ==================== 4) THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY --- Julian takes a look at an aspect of life at sea and ashore in the Great Age of Fighting Sail --- FLOGGING. +Bosun. What are your feelings about the use of the cat o'nine tails? +JS. One of my characters in KYDD addresses this issue. Flogging is a very emotive topic and certainly no-one who reads accounts of the lash can remain unmoved - but it is important to look at this in the context of the eighteenth century. Ashore, you could be transported to Botany Bay for stealing a handkerchief or hung for robbing someone of a few shillings. At sea, you couldn't hang everybody or put them in irons for long, so summary justice, over quickly, was the only practical way. It is also worth pointing out that at the Great Mutiny in 1797 the seamen did not even mention flogging in their grievances. ==================== 5) ON THE STOCKS --- News of upcoming books, foreign translations and audio versions --- +Scribner publishes an American edition of KYDD in June, to coincide with Father's Day +An abridged audio version of KYDD has been recorded by Jack Davenport and is now available +The highly respected European publisher Ullstein Maritim has purchased German- language rights for KYDD and the subsequent volume ARTEMIS. The first volume comes out in November. +ARTEMIS, the second book in the projected 11-book series, is launched in April 2002 in the UK and later in the year in the U.S. In ARTEMIS, Kydd is aboard a crack frigate sailing the high seas to exotic lands. He also meets personal challenges of an unusual nature and the book concludes with Kydd facing death itself. The first chapter of ARTEMIS will be published on Julian's website toward the end of this year. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS! ==================== 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS --- We welcome news and views from Shipmates around the world --- Julian would love to hear from you. Contact ==================== 7) DAYS OUT --- Each month we visit somewhere around the world of special nautical interest --- For the inaugural issue of "The Bosun's Chronicle" we headed off to the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth, England. The exhibitions that particularly caught our eye were: +The Sailing Navy Gallery+ +The Victory at Trafalgar Gallery+ +Horatio Nelson, the Hero and the Man+ The Sailing Navy Gallery will be of special interest for readers of KYDD as it is a fascinating reconstruction of life aboard a typical warship of the eighteenth century. It is the best exhibit of its nature around - you can climb into a leaguer barrel, weigh-up a mighty musket and undertake your very own battle at the helm of a 74-gun ship. Worth a day - and bring the kids! Opening hours are 10am to 5:30. Further details on ==================== 8) REPORTS --- what people are saying about KYDD --- Here are some of the highlights of recent reviews: "A wonderfully fresh and incredibly vivid debut novel ..." "Stockwin has launched a series that evokes the best of CS Forester ..." "I reckon [the series] will be as popular as the novels of Patrick O'Brian, so exciting is this new author ..." The full text of these reviews, and others, are on the official Julian Stockwin website Julian has already heard from a number of readers how much they enjoyed the book. If you would like to drop him a note please either email or send a letter to Julian Stockwin, Hodder & Stoughton, 338 Euston Road, London, NW1 3BH Yours aye THE BOSUN (To unsubscribe this newsletter email )