24/09/2008 - A new book on the history of the modern Royal Navy
Seaforth Publishing is delighted to have teamed up with the White Ensign Association - celebrating its Golden Jubilee - and the Royal Navy to produce a sumptuously-illustrated history of the Navy from the Suez Crisis to the present-day war in Iraq. The author, retired RN Captain John Roberts, had access to privileged information and has written a detailed and fascinating story. And it is strange that, among its 170,000 volumes, the Admiratly Library has no single-volume history such as this; they eagerly await its publication in April 2009. 
 
Prince Charles and Lord Boyce, former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Defence Staff when the Allies invaded Iraq, have contributed and it is hoped that the book will reach out and promote the Navy at a time when it is facing yet further cuts.

22/05/2008 - A new book on Navy Board models
Phil Reed, the distinguished ship modeller and author of Period Ship Modelmaking, has just delivered his new book, his latest step-by-step volume which tackles what, for many, is regarded as the ultimate expression of the ship modelmaker’s art, the Navy Board model. These beautiful early eighteenth-century works of art are well represented in the major maritime museums both here and in the States as well as in private collections but their rarity puts them beyond the reach of most of us. 
 
Phil has built - and recorded every stage of the process - a miniature 1/192 scale model of the Royal George of 1715, in which all the conventions of Navy Board framing and planking are demonstrated. For any modeller who might aspire to owning a Navy Board model, this book will be an essential manual and reference work. It’s due to be published in May 2009 and will contain some 400 colour photographs depicting all the stages of construction. 
 
Here is a photograph of Phil’s wonderful model, nearing completion, showing off the exquisite details of the stern galleries and windows.

20/10/2009 - J D Davies wins 2009 Samuel Pepys Award
JD Davies’s authoritative study of the fledgling Royal Navy – PEPYS’S NAVY: Ships, Men and Warfare 1649-1689 – has won the fourth Samuel Pepys Award.  
 
In PEPYS’S NAVY (Seaforth Publishing), David Davies examines every aspect of the English navy in the second half of the seventeenth century, from the time when the Fleet was taken into Parliamentary control after the defeat of Charles I, until the accession of William and Mary in 1689 when the long period of struggle with the Dutch came to an end. This crucial era witnessed the creation of a permanent naval service, in essence the birth of  
the Royal Navy. 
 
Samuel Pepys played a pivotal role in the creation of a professional navy, first as a member of the Navy Board and later as Secretary to the Admiralty. His thirty years’ service did much to replace the ad hoc processes of the past with systems for construction and administration. That, by 1690, the navy was ready for a century of struggle against the French owed much to Pepys’s tireless work. 
 
The judges, who included the inaugural winner of the Award, Claire Tomalin, were unanimous in their decision to award the prize to David Davies. 
 
Speaking on behalf of the judges, Ann Sweeney (Chairman), commented,  
"We expect PEPYS’S NAVY to become an enduring work of reference. Very comprehensive and written with great authority, David Davies has shown his total knowledge of secondary sources balanced by his own research. The excellent descriptions of sea battles and the minutiae of ship-board life are supported by superb illustrations. This is an exceptional successor to his previous book Gentlemen and Tarpaulins. It is a book we would all like to have on our bookshelves." 
 
JD Davies will be presented with a cheque for £2000 and a specially commissioned medal designed by Philip Nathan in memory of Robert Latham, the co-editor of the definitive edition of Pepys’s diary. The award will be given at the annual Samuel Pepys dinner to be held at Apothecaries’ Hall on 20 October. 
 
The Samuel Pepys Award is a biennial prize and is given for a book that, in the opinion of the judges, makes the greatest contribution to the understanding of Samuel Pepys, his times or his contemporaries in the interest of encouraging scholarship in this area. The first award was given to Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self in 2003 to mark the tercentenary of his death in May 1703. Frances Harris won the award in 2005 for Transformations of Love, for her vivid portrait of John Evelyn’s ‘chaste but passionate’ friendship with Margaret Godolphin, a maid of honour at the Restoration court of Charles II. In 2007, the Award was made to John Adamson for The Noble Revolt, an absorbing narrative of the period between the king’s decision to fight the Scots in May 1640 and his flight from London in January 1642.  

26/01/2009 - Thank you to everyone who entered our opinion poll and monthly quiz
We would like to thank everyone who participated in last months quiz and opinion poll.  
 
We would like to congratulate David Spalding, the winner of our opinion poll, a signed copy of 'Pepys's Navy' is on it's way to you. We asked people to vote for their favourite military motto. The most popular motto was for the RNLI 'The sea shall nor have them' which took 40% of the overall votes. 
 
We would also like to congratulate Norman Trewren, the winner of our monthly quiz who is walking away with a £30 voucher. 
 
Thanks again to everyone who entered.