Dudley Pope
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Dudley Pope (29 December 1925 - 25 April 1997) was a British writer of both nautical fiction and history, most notable for his Lord Ramage series of historical novels.
He was born in Ashford, Kent, and at age 16 joined the merchant navy as a midshipman. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942), and he was invalided out. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then moved to the London Evening News in 1944, where he was the naval and defence correspondent.
His first book, Flag 4, was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire, and in 1965, Ramage appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
He took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.
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Books
Ramage series (in period order)
- 1796 - Ramage (1965)
- 1797 - Ramage and the Drumbeat (1968)
- 1797 - Ramage and the Freebooters (1969)
- 1797 - Governor Ramage RN (1973)
- 1798 - Ramage's Prize (1974)
- 1799 - Ramage's Mutiny (1977)
- 1800 - Ramage and the Rebels (1978)
- 1800 - The Ramage Touch (1979)
- 1800 - Ramage's Signal (1980)
- 1801 - Ramage and the Guillotine (1975)
- 1802 - Ramage's Diamond (1976)
- 1802 - Ramage and the Renegades (1981)
- 1803 - Ramage's Devil (1982)
- 1803 - Ramage's Trial (1984)
- 1803 - Ramage's Challenge (1985)
- 1805 - Ramage at Trafalgar (1986)
- 1806 - Ramage and the Saracens (1988)
- 1806 - Ramage and the Dido (1989)
Yorke series
Other novels
Nonfiction
- Flag 4: The Battle of Coastal Forces in the Mediterranean (1954)
- The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
- 73 North: The Battle of the Barents Sea 1942 (1958)
- Decision at Trafalgar (1959)
- England Expects (1959)
- The Black Ship (1963)
- Harry Morgan's Way: Biography of Sir Henry Morgan 1635-1688 (1977)
- The Great Gamble: Nelson at Copenhagen (1978)
- Life in Nelson's Navy (1981)
- At 12 Mr Byng Was Shot (1987)
External links
- Bio of Dudley Pope, with pictures (http://www.winthrop.dk/dpope.html)
- Biographical info by Kay Pope (http://www.winthrop.dk/popebio.html)
- a bio from Book and Magazine Collector (http://www.aboutnelson.co.uk/32Pope.htm)