Patrick O'Brian

Emerging from a modest childhood in Buckinghamshire, he pursued brief stints of naval and RAF pilot training before turning to writing, publishing his first novel at fifteen and gaining early praise for works such as Hussein, An Entertainment and the short-story collection Beasts Royal. Though his pre-Aubrey output remained largely obscure, the twenty-book Aubrey-Maturin series-centered on Captain… Read more

Biography written by WatchMoods, based on public sources