Buller's Dreadnought

Commander Buller #2

by Richard Hough

After witnessing the defeat of the Russian fleet at Tsushima, Buller and Maclewin become involved in a campaign to deceive the Germans concerning the armament capacities of the British Dreadnought cruisers

251 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Richard Alexander Hough was a British author and historian specializing in naval history. As a child, he was obsessed with making model warships and collecting information about navies around the world. In 1941, he joined the Royal Air Force and trained at a flying school near Los Angeles. He flew Hurricanes and Typhoons and was wounded in action.

After World War II, Hough worked as a part-time delivery driver for a wine shop, while looking for employment involving books. He finally joined the publishing house Bodley Head, and then Hamish Hamilton, where he eventually headed the children’s book division.

His work as a publisher inspired him to turn to writing himself in 1950, and he went on to write more than ninety books over a long and successful career. Best-known for his works of naval history and his biographies, he also wrote war novels and books for children (under the pseudonym Bruce Carter), all of which sold in huge numbers around the world. His works include The Longest Battle: The War at Sea 1939-45, Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century and best-selling biographies of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Captain James Cook. Captain Bligh and Mr Christian, his 1972 account of the mutiny on the Bounty, was the basis of the 1984 film The Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.

Hough was the official historian of the Mountbatten family and a longtime student of Churchill. Winston Churchill figures prominently in nine of his books, including Former Naval Person: Churchill and the Wars at Sea. He won the Daily Express Best Book of the Sea Award in 1972.

Reviews

[Mike Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great portrayal of 19th/20th century life in the Royal Navy.

Needs editing. Appears to have been digitized from paperback. Still, a roaring good tale with plenty of action on the high seas.

[Mr Michael R Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Two
As enjoyable as the first, still plenty of technical detail but now includes some social history as well.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review originally published at Book of Bogan.

Buller’s Dreadnought is a tale of romance, romance, politics, romance and the dawn of the age of dreadnoughts at the start of the 20th Century, and the race to develop the biggest baddest fighting ships… but mostly about dreadnoughts.

The main character is a wandering genius in grand tradition of non-specific heroes in historical novels, whose job it is to travel the world and spy on other countries to keep up with the latest in naval technology, while ensuring that Britain stays ahead of the curve. Mostly this involves him acting like a randy cad with various persons of interest

This novel is mostly about politics, and the politics of war, and while there are several decently described battle scenes, which make a sturdy effort at capturing the feel of a modern battle, it really wasn’t what I had hoped for in this type of book.

There were some interesting, quasi-non fictiony bits about the various competing ideas about the future of naval warfare. For the most part however, as discussed above the focus was elsewhere, which left me feeling bored most of the time, and I skimmed through some sections.

I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of the Buller series, and it was a decent read. The details of pre-WWI England and Germany, some interesting espionage elements, and the information on ship building as the newest and most deadly ships were being created for modern warfare was fascinating.

I know some about WWI, but the sea battles I knew nothing about, and they were perhaps the final "line of battle" major sea battles ever fought in the world.

However, the book was otherwise not very engaging. I care nothing for any of the characters, despite the author insisting upon their fine points. Over and over we're told various things about characters, but they do not ever demonstrate these characteristics, and in fact often seem to contradict them. At no point does our hero ever feel to be in any real danger despite the situations he's in. And upper class English twits in the early 20th century are no more likable when fellow German twits are involved.

So: interesting historical information, blah characterization, overall 2½ stars.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was enjoyable. I believe I should have read earlier books as this refers to events that were previously mentioned.
There is some historical fact, and some historical fantasy. A combination of early European social strata and international relationships of rulers of Great Britain, Germany, and Russia.

I will probably read more of Hough's works as it is light reading and a break from more serious literature.

[Johnny Linehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, BRILLIANT

Richard Youth's books always crack along at a good pace. A bit too much mushy stuff but loads of action