Ramage's Challenge: The Lord Ramage Novels Series No 15

Lord Ramage #15

by Dudley Pope

Admiralty spies are hunting for British officers and allies trapped on the mainland, among them Ramage's first love, Gianna, the Marchesa di Volterra. Ramage returns to the Tuscan coast, where Bonaparte holds a group of hostages for an unknown fate.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Nautical, Fiction, Audiobook, Military Fiction, War

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Dudley Pope was born in Ashford, Kent.

By concealing his age, Pope joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors.

After he was invalided out of the Merchant Navy, the only obvious sign of the injuries Pope had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.

Pope's first book, "Flag 4", was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, "Ramage" appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.

Pope 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.

Pope died April 25, 1997 in Marigot, St. Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survived him.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a tremendous amount of description about places in this book and not a massive amount of plot line. I almost felt at times, especially early, that he'd just used a chart to write the book until inspiration struck.
The plot when it arrives is ok, although it's kind of obvious that he's going to rescue either his wife or Giana in his rescue bid.
The ending was again left hanging and I was even more annoyed this time as there was a whole load of set up with admirals etc that would have been really interesting to see how it panned out but which we were denied.

[Jason Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe I like this volume most of all. Ramage takes a few risks but they are not terribly offside. I think there is some good work here by Pope to set up the twist at the end. A few fake outs and a little bit of time compression and use of offstage action to keep the reader a bit off balance on what to expect next.

The Ship: HMS Calypso
The Crew: Welcome Lieutenant Hill, erstwhile of Ramage’s court martial in the last volume.
The Love Interest: Much mystery around Sarah, some wistful thoughts around the Marchesa.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good Ramage novel. Tasked with the Admiralty with trying to rescue Admirals, Generals and Peers of the realm who were captured by Napoleon on the continent and not as lucky to escape as he did 2 books ago. An up and down rescue mission as they land and scout several places in Italy trying to find the prisoners while staying 1 step ahead of the French.

[Coleen Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Ramage does a lot more than what you would expect a Captain in the Royal Navy to do. This time he is back in Tuscany and on land rescuing hostages. His crew will follow him anyone no matter how crazy the idea may seem and this time he has an additional 4 Frenchmen on his crew which help with the deception.

[Douglas Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rampage does it again

Pope's Ramage has the best of all luck. Even when his plans go awry, everything seems to fall in his favor. Rescue British hostages? No problem. Sink a French frigate? Done before breakfast. Attack a fort? Right after supper, if you please. Even Aubrey, Bolitho and Hornblower had their set backs but Ramage seems to be impervious to any turn of fortune and that is the great weakness of the series.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting to get kind of boring, repeats short descriptions of previous adventures which is great if you haven't read the series & need the background, but gets tedious when you are reading through the series. The ending really surprised me!

[F. Michael McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read, A lot of exploration of Ramage's state of mind while Sarah is a hostage.

The Admiralty gives Ramage another set of extraordinary orders, but as usual carries them out. The details make for an exciting story. Will be reading the others.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ramage does it again. A little repetitive but some good explanations on the workings of a frigate.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only question was which of Ransom’s two women would be among the hostages…

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh how I liked this book! The problems Ramage solves, and the ending ♥️♥️

[Michael Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the 15th book in the series about the adventures in the Napoleonic wars of Captain Lord Nicholas Ramage, RN, which appears to be slowly running out of steam. The first third of the book is mostly a detailed travelogue of Tuscany, where the author, like his protagonist, obviously acquired many nostalgic memories. Unfortunately, this consists mostly of inflicting long strings of Italian place names on the impatient reader, and not much else. Pope seems determined to note the identity of every village, hill, and stream he can locate. And, just in case you weren’t paying attention, he points all this out numerous times.

And why all this? Because Ramage has secret orders from the Admiralty to attempt to rescue a number of high-ranking British hostages who were trapped on the Continent when war broke out again between Britain and France, after eighteen months of carefully orchestrated peace following the Treaty of Amiens in 1803. There’s a clutch of senior admirals, generals, and titled noblemen tucked away somewhere near the coast -- and since Ramage knows the country, speaks Italian, and commands a French-built frigate that might just escape notice, he’s it. He’s also returning to the shore where he rescued the beautiful young Marchesa di Volterra back in the series’ first book (they had an affair but now they’re just good friends), and whose nephew is now his midshipman. (Apparently the only “volunteer” aboard, which seems very unlikely for a frigate.) Ramage also lost his new wife, whose ship back to England from the Caribbean was presumably captured or sunk in the last book. And he rehearses the circumstances and possible fates of both women in his life over and over and over, on about every third page. (In real life, Ramage’s ability to command a warship would be badly compromised by this constant remorseful dwelling on the tragedies in his life, but whatever.)

Pope also seems determined to use his narrative as a teaching tool for the nautically uninformed, to the extend that the experienced reader will become annoyed and impatient. Is it really necessary for the captain to remind himself that the four little wooden wheels on the gun carriages, which press such weight down upon the deck, are known as “trucks”? Really?

So Ramage takes a party ashore and marches to the small, fortified town where the hostages are supposedly being kept, but then things get complicated. I won’t spoil the plot by adding more details, except to note that this is the only story in the series where Ramage and his crew don’t come under fire from an enemy ship -- and they only fire their own guns a few times, at a target that can’t shoot back. There are some good scenes, but Ramage also seems to be far too matey with his officers and men, especially compared to Jack Aubrey, Horatio Hornblower, Richard Bolitho, Thomas Kydd, Alan Lewrie, or any of the other protagonists of the numerous Napoleonic naval adventures I’ve enjoyed over the years. Well, there are only a couple more volumes to go, so I suppose I’ll finish the series -- but it isn’t nearly as much fun as it used to be.

[jallioop · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh Mr. Pope - not up to your usual standards. Had yourself a nice visit to Italy, hmmm? Decided to share your knowledge with us? Only problem is - we're expecting a *nautical fiction* series, not an Italian travelogue. First two-thirds of the book expounds on the history, current customs, agricultural practices and land formations of Tuscany. B-o-r-i-n-g. Seems as if Mr. Pope wrote himself into a corner when Sarah's ship goes missing during Ramage #14 and he had only a short story's worth of idea of how Ramage could get her back. Once we got down to the hostage rescuing action at sea, things were fine, but boy did we have to wade through junk to get there. No joke, first two-thirds of book is on land and nothing happens. My advice to folks reading the series - you can skip this one without missing anything - there's no character development, we don't learn anything more about Ramage or Sarah or any of the guys. Just go directly from Ramage #14 to #16, and accept that, through the magic of fiction, Sarah is back. Oh and P.S., LT Hill, the new LT from the mutiny trial, is a good guy (we do learn that in #15).

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts with lots of reminiscences and recapping previous adventures, followed by pages and pages of marching up and down Italian hills. To be honest this goes on far too long and I found it bit hard going.
Overall this wasn’t a bad story and there were a few nice interchanges, but it wasn’t one of the most exciting Ramage books.

[Jon Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another captivating Pope rendition of Ramage--we're nearing the end of this enjoyable series. Ramage and his eclectic band of Brits, Italians, Frenchmen and an American find yet another way to solve impossible Admiralty tasking (three actions) in this story that moves us up and down the Tuscan coast ... with a happy ending you will guess at from the beginning--enjoy!

[Lia Marcoux · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have only vague memories of reading the earlier books in the series, but this was exquisitely researched and educational in a gentle, un-sneaky way. Everything is very happy and nice and clean-living and no-cursing in this version of the British Navy, but it's still a nice little story with a thorough grounding in fact.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first of the Ramage books - all of which are exciting and well written. The Ramage series ranks 3rd with me behind Hornblower and Bolitho for age of sail excitement. Ramage is just a little too good and nothing is impossible..

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got the impression that the authr ran out of story to tell. I have read most of the previous books in the series and enjoyed them. I will probably not finish the series.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good Ramage. Not much to say, except I enjoyed it.

[Gerold Whittaker]

Enjoyed

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all the Ramage novels so far some are better paced than others but all of them fun reads this one contains a wrong description someone that has librarian status here should fix it :)

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems that when the British Navy has a job that seems impossible to carry out they give it to Damage. So guess what they have a good one this time. A hostage rescue in French held territory.