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Summary
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Bernard Cornwell is perhaps the most popular historical fiction novelist in the world. In The Fort, a small British garrison and three sloops-of-war protect the unfinished Fort George in 1779. As a bold show of force, Massachusetts sends 900 soldiers and 42 ships toward the fort to obliterate the redcoats and energize the American Revolution. "Cornwell's historical accuracy is excellent."-Diana Gabaldon
Author Notes
Bernard Cornwell was born in London, England, on February 23, 1944, and came to the United States in 1980. He received a B.A. from the University of London in 1967.
Cornwell served as producer of the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1969-1976. After this he was head of current affairs for BBC-TV in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1979 he became editor of television news for Thames Television of London. Since 1980 he has been a freelance writer. he lives with his wife on Cape Cod.
Cornwell's Sharpe series, adventure stories about a British soldier set in the Peninsula War of 1808-1814, are built on the author's interest in the Duke of Wellington's army. Titles include Sharpe's Rifles, Sharpe's Revenge, Sharpe's Siege, Sharpe's Regiment, and Sharpe's Waterloo. The Last Kingdom series has ten books. Book ten, The Flame Bearer is on the bestsellers list. He has also written other works including Wildtrack, Killer's Wake, Sea Lord, Stormchild, Rebel, Copperhead, and Battle Flag. His title Death of Kings made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2012 and In 2014 his title The Pagan Lord made the list again.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a slight departure from his usual sword and musket epics, Cornwell (Agincourt) delivers a straightforward fictionalized account of a disastrous 1779 American military campaign in today's Maine (then Massachusetts) that's heavy on historical figures and tense battle scenes. After the British establish a fort on the Penobscot River, the Massachusetts patriots mount an expedition to oust the redcoats. Unfortunately, the campaign is poorly planned and ineptly executed, pitting an ill-trained and undisciplined force against experienced British soldiers and the Royal Navy. The commander of the American land force is Gen. Solomon Lovell, a useless and dithering Boston politician, and the American navy is led by Cmdr. Dudley Saltonstall, an obstinate officer who refuses to risk his ships. Then there's Paul Revere, artillery commander and shameful yellow belly. In fact, the only American officer with any spirit for a fight is a former schoolteacher, Gen. Peleg Wadsworth. This is a rousing yarn of clashing personalities, crashing cannons, and lively musket and bayonet work, along with spies, cowardice, and moments of incredible bravery. Cornwell presents a fascinating, accurate, and exciting history lesson enlivened with a generous blast of gun smoke and grapeshot. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Guardian Review
America's biggest defeat at home by a foreign force was not, as most people probably think, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was at a small farming settlement on the Penobscot river in what is now Maine, called Majabigwaduce in 1779, four years into the war of independence, when a fleet of 40 American warships and 3,000 fighting men were comprehensively routed by the tiny British garrison at Fort George, defended by 700 Redcoats (mainly Scottish Highlanders) and three Royal Navy frigates. Majabigwaduce is not much dwelt on by teachers in US schools these days - no surprise there - but it is less the military defeat that rankles than the tarnished reputation of a legendary revolutionary war hero, immortalised in Longfellow's epic poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere", when he rode from Boston to Lexington to warn the rebels that the Redcoats were coming. Revere's lacklustre performance as OC armaments at the Fort George engagement led to his subsequent courtmartial for cowardice. Cornwell's account, based on fact and including real characters, is, considering he's English, admirably impartial. He doesn't crow, he doesn't criticise, he just tells a cracking good story. And why wouldn't he? War is his favourite subject. He has written shedloads of bestselling historical fiction - series and one-offs - about the Arthurian legends, the Vikings, Agincourt, the Napoleonic wars, the American civil war. No one describes the smell, the screams, the colour, the fear, the violence and the heroism of a battlefield more vividly than Cornwell. I know, I'm a pre-20th-century naval and military war junkie.Patrick O'Brian rules the waves, but the battlefields belong to Cornwell. - Sue Arnold America's biggest defeat at home by a foreign force was not, as most people probably think, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was at a small farming settlement on the Penobscot river in what is now Maine, called Majabigwaduce in 1779, four years into the war of independence, when a fleet of 40 American warships and 3,000 fighting men were comprehensively routed by the tiny British garrison at Fort George, defended by 700 Redcoats (mainly Scottish Highlanders) and three Royal Navy frigates. - Sue Arnold.
Booklist Review
Cornwell turns his key historical eye on the Penobscot Expedition, a little-known episode in the annals of the Revolutionary War that culminated in a resounding naval defeat for the fledgling U.S. Grounding his story in primary sources, including diaries, letters, and court transcripts, and animating a cast of real-life historical characters, he fleshes out the story of the vastly outmanned British infantry troops who stood their ground against a numerically superior naval fleet launched to summarily expel them. After establishing a shaky outpost in Penobscot, Maine then the eastern province of Massachusetts in 1779, the British forces and a band of loyalist colonists were beset by a large fleet and a sizable militia sent by the state of Massachusetts. Intent on establishing a siege, the American contingent, undermined by martial miscalculations and surprised by uncompromising resistance, was eventually thwarted by the enemy. Illuminating the battle from all angles and telling the story from both sides, Cornwell once again offers a fresh perspective on a stirring episode in martial history.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This novel represents something of a departure for Cornwell (Agincourt), set in Revolutionary War-era America instead of his native England. It portrays the efforts of the Massachusetts Militia to expel the British from Penobscot Bay (and the rest of North America) in July and August 1779. Cornwell relates the events of the battle in a straightforward fashion, depicting the British landing and hasty construction of Fort George, the arrival of the American troops, and the unfolding land and naval battles. As with all his books, Cornwell does not flinch from describing in great detail the blood and gore of 18th-century battle. His British heritage provides a fresh perspective; he repeatedly and unfavorably contrasts the leadership of Solomon Lovell and Dudley Saltonstall, the American commanders, with British commander Francis McLean. American readers may be somewhat taken aback by his negative portrayal of the American leadership and of Paul Revere in particular. Verdict Cornwell fans and readers who enjoy historical military fiction will find this a readable and thoroughly researched account of an obscure Revolutionary War battle.-Douglas Southard, CRA International, Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
