The War for All the Oceans

From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo

By: Roy Adkins, Lesley Adkins

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Roy Adkins, with his wife, Lesley, returns to the Napoleonic War in The War for All the Oceans, a gripping account of the naval struggle that lasted from 1798 to 1815, a period marked at the beginning by Napoleon's seizing power and at the end by the War of 1812. In this vivid and visceral account, Adkins draws on eyewitness records to portray not only the battles but also the details of a sailor's life: shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies, and prisoners of war.

The War for All the Oceans is epic narrative history, sure to appeal to fans of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, as well as all readers of military and social history.

©2007 Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Sumptuous storytelling." (Kirkus)
"Vivid....[A] rollicking saga." (Publishers Weekly)

Narration is not that bad

I put off this book for months, due to the bad reviews of the narrator, which seemed to be corroborated by the sample from the first few paragraphs of the book. Eventually I decided to take a chance, and was glad I did.

The narrator gets into a decent rhythm, and his American accent is a useful contrast to the many other accents from French and British accounts of naval battles.

This book contained a lot of stories and historical detail that I was not previously aware of, despite having read several other histories of this period, including Napoleon's Wars by Charles Esdaile.

Overall, a satisfying story with a satisfying narrator.

Very well researched

Although a bit long, this is a very well researched book with many interesting and appropriate anecdotes

Vignettes of a bygone age

While this book is rather disjointed in its treatment of a fascinating age, there were nonetheless many historical tidbits that I found most interesting.

Sad to say, Patrick Lawlor - whom I enjoyed as the narrator of 'Three Cups of Tea" - has a real problem with British placenames, Scottish accents and French in general. These I found most distracting.

A wonderful work of history, with one exception

Great book, top-notch narration (Lawton truly did the book justice). I greatly enjoyed all the detail, the personal stories that evinced so much research by the author. My *only* complaint is the short shrift given the most important battle of the time: Trafalgar. I’m fairly certain that the author had felt that Trafalgar had been done to death in other histories and did not want to waste the readers’ time, but the barely-one-page coverage of the battle itself does significantly detract from this otherwise most excellent work.

Pretty good, if disorganized

I enjoyed the The War for All the Oceans. There were a great deal of personal letters and diary entries that gave life to the battles and even everyday life of the soldiers and seamen.

As a reader of the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, I certainly found several familiar sequences and battles.

The main drawback of the book is a bit of a tendency to skip from one story to the next and back again. To a degree it can be explained as an attempt to maintain chronology, but some anecdotes could have been completed with much less inter-splicing of material.


Overall, I found the book both entertaining and informative. I would certainly recommend it to anyone with a love for the old British Navy, or those who have an interest in the Napoleonic wars.