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Chris’s Year In Books

Chris’s 2025 Year in Books

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Chris Durbin

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United Kingdom

Website

https://chris-durbin.com

Genre

Historical Fiction, History

Influences

C.S. Forester ...more

Member Since

August 2017

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Chris Durbin grew up in the seaside town of Porthcawl in South Wales. His first experience of sailing was as a sea cadet in the treacherous tideway of the Bristol Channel, and at the age of sixteen, he spent a week in a topsail schooner in the Southwest Approaches. He was a crew member on the Porthcawl lifeboat before joining the navy.

Chris spent twenty-four years as a warfare officer in the Royal Navy, serving in all classes of ship from aircraft carriers through destroyers and frigates to the smallest minesweepers. He took part in operational campaigns in the Falkland Islands, the Middle East and the Adriatic. As a personnel exchange officer, he spent two years teaching tactics at a US Navy training centre in San Diego.

On his retirement f Chris Durbin grew up in the seaside town of Porthcawl in South Wales. His first experience of sailing was as a sea cadet in the treacherous tideway of the Bristol Channel, and at the age of sixteen, he spent a week in a topsail schooner in the Southwest Approaches. He was a crew member on the Porthcawl lifeboat before joining the navy.

Chris spent twenty-four years as a warfare officer in the Royal Navy, serving in all classes of ship from aircraft carriers through destroyers and frigates to the smallest minesweepers. He took part in operational campaigns in the Falkland Islands, the Middle East and the Adriatic. As a personnel exchange officer, he spent two years teaching tactics at a US Navy training centre in San Diego.

On his retirement from the Royal Navy, Chris joined a large American company and spent eighteen years in the aerospace, defence and security industry, including two years on the design team for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

Chris is a graduate of the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, the British Army Command and Staff College, the United States Navy War College (where he gained a postgraduate diploma in national security decision-making) and Cambridge University (where he was awarded an MPhil in International Relations).

With a lifelong interest in naval history and a long-standing ambition to write historical fiction, Chris has embarked upon creating the Carlisle & Holbrooke series, in which a colonial Virginian commands a British navy frigate during the middle years of the eighteenth century.

The series will follow its principal characters through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American Colonies in the 1760s. They’ll negotiate some thought-provoking loyalty issues when British policy and colonial restlessness lead inexorably to the American Revolution.

Chris now lives on the south coast of England, surrounded by hundreds of years of naval history. His three children are all busy growing their own families and careers while Chris and his wife (US Navy, retired) of thirty-seven years enjoy sailing their classic dayboat. ...more

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Chris Durbin’s books

Average rating: 4.47 · 14,644 ratings · 382 reviews · 15 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Colonial Post-Captain (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #1) 4.35 avg rating — 1,823 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Leeward Islands Squadron (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #2) 4.48 avg rating — 1,393 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Jamaica Station (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #3) 4.51 avg rating — 1,244 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Holbrooke's Tide (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #4) 4.49 avg rating — 1,178 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cursed Fortress (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #5) 4.50 avg rating — 1,070 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ligurian Mission (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #9) 4.51 avg rating — 1,037 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rocks and Shoals (The Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #7) 4.53 avg rating — 992 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Niagara Squadron (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventure #8) 4.49 avg rating — 961 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Perilous Shore (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #6) 4.47 avg rating — 921 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cousins At Arms (Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #13) 4.41 avg rating — 812 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Chris Durbin…

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The Eighth book in the Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures

I'm pleased to let you know that Niagara Squadron is now available on Amazon. This is the eighth book in the Carlisle and Holbrooke Naval Adventures. The year is 1759 and Holbrooke is without a ship. He is sent to North America to join the army that is setting off across the wilderness to capture Fort Niagara from the French. Although Holbrooke's orders are merely to manage the six hundred boats t Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 09, 2020 08:17

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Series by Chris Durbin

Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures (16 books)
by

Chris Durbin (Goodreads Author)

4.47 avg rating — 14,957 ratings

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Sharpe's Tiger (Sharpe, #1)

by Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)

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Dec 23, 2025 11:45AM

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The Shetland Night Killings: The Shetland Sailing Mysteries

by Marsali Taylor (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 06, 2025 02:43PM

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Buried in a Shetland Tomb: The Shetland Sailing Mysteries

by Marsali Taylor (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 03, 2025 12:37PM

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Chris Durbin is currently reading Sharpe's Tiger (Sharpe, #1) by Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 23, 2025 11:45AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Chris Durbin is currently reading Buried in a Shetland Tomb: The Shetland Sailing Mysteries by Marsali Taylor (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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