Acclaim
The Glorious First of June
‘[Willis has] a great gift for making complex events exceptionally clear, and an authentically salty understanding of the workings of wind, sea and rig…[a] brilliant and subtly nuanced account of the battle’
Adam Nicolson for The Sunday Times
‘Those who would attempt to explain a great battle at sea in the age of sail need salt water in the veins, and a skilled pen. In this marvellous book Dr Sam Willis proves that he has both, placing a titanic battle in the critical contexts of French and British politics, grand strategy, art and culture.’
Professor Andrew Lambert for the BBC History Magazine, which selected The Glorious First of June as its Book of the Month, January 2012
‘The last of his superb Hearts of Oak Trilogy…One of the things that makes Willis such a joy to read is the blazing clarity of his explanations’
Mail on Sunday
‘Aside from an evident mastery of the sources, [Willis] also has a mastery of storytelling, and at times the volume was hard to put down…An outstanding book…A fitting finale to a superb trilogy’
British Commission for Military History
‘One of the most important contributions to naval historiography of 2011 and very highly recommended.’
Navy News
‘gripped from the first page to the last by this really insightful account not just of the battle but of the whole political and historical events which inspired it…There is something immediately engaging and dynamic about Willis’s style…Sam Willis is a painstaking professional scholar and one of the pleasures of his book is following the detail of the research taking us through many interesting and often small human stories which bring the events to life
www.thebookbag.co.uk
‘A brilliant and highly readable study of a forgotten naval legend’
Western Morning News
‘Displaying an awesome knowledge of the sailing navy, his depiction of the chaos and horror spawned by the French Revolution makes gripping reading’
Warships Magazine
The Glorious First of June has been selected for the book clubs of Talk Radio Europe and Newstalk Ireland
