The setting is German Central Africa in the year 1914. At the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, the local German commander has rounded up the local natives and as a consequence closed the Christian mission run by the Reverend Samuel Sayer. The Reverend dies and his spinster sister, Rose Sayer, are left on her own. When cockney Charlie Allnutt comes to visit the mission, he helps her bury his brother.

Then the two of them sets out to go down the treacherous and wild Ulanga River in Charlie’s little steam engine launch, The African Queen. Rose wants to contribute to the British cause by torpedoing the German police steamer, Konigin Luise, which is the only ship of any size in the region and so completely dominates Lake Wittelsbach, the lake far down at the end of the Ulanga River.

Getting the African Queen down to the lake is more or less impossible. The journey by river has only been done once, by a man riding down the rapids in a canoe. The wild journey sees them facing the guns of a local fort, treacherous currents, raging rapids, insects, unfriendly leeches, malaria, near impenetrable vegetation, and a host of mechanical challenges. Rose and Allnutt, of course, eventually fall in love. And they reach the lake.

The African Queen is a very good book. A strange but great plot, basically two very different people more or less forced together by necessity, total strangers, setting out on a mission, fighting together against nature and gradually developing a relationship to one another. Very exciting, very interesting and very entertaining. C. S. Forester deserves to be remembered for this one as well!

Links to C. S. Forester’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, amazon CAN, and at Bokkilden and Haugenbok.

©2010 The World of Books. All Rights Reserved.

In Beat to Quarters (the US title) we find Hornblower, having been promoted to Captain, on a secret mission to the Pacific with his ship HMS Lydia, a 36 gun frigate, to support a rebel against the Spanish Empire in Central America and damage the Spanish naval presence there, the Natividad. The Natividad is a 50 gun Spanish ship of the line, thus a tall order for Hornblower to handle. Yet his order is “to take, sink, burn or destroy” Natividad.

Hornblower soon finds that the Spanish noble is a little bit different from what he had expected, and that perhaps all is not exactly as supposed. The Spanish noble calls himself El Supremo, views himself as more or less divine, and tolerates nothing but absolute obedience. However, Hornblower has little choice in the matter. His orders are clear. So he joins forces with the madman.

Then he sets out the capture the powerful Spanish frigate Natividad, which is the key to Spanish naval control of the American Pacific coast. And, indeed, as it turns out he has to fight not only one, but two fights with the Spaniard. And both are spectacular fights, well worthy of Horatio Hornblower. The first is a clever night action. The second is a battle at sea with the two ships battling it out side by side with gunsmoke and roaring guns in a fight to death.

And when Hornblower returns to England, he carries with him a passenger he had to pick up in Panama, Lady Barbara Wellesley. She turns out to be a wonderful lady and, as well, an excellent whist player. So now the newly married Hornblower gets engaged in another type of battle altogether.

Beat to Quarters is a spectacular, very entertaining book. It is easy, when reading Beat to Quarters, to understand why the Hornblower saga so quickly acquired such a large following.

Links to C. S. Forester’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, amazon CAN, and at Bokkilden and Haugenbok.

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©2010 The World of Books. All Rights Reserved.