A Fine Boy for Killing, by Jan Needle

This is the first volume of Jan Needle’s series of nautical fiction adventures called The Sea Officer William Bentley Novels. The novel is a very promising start to this series, A Fine Boy for Killing, by Jan Needle where Needle introduces readers to 14-year-old officer William Bentley and life aboard the frigate HMS Welfare during the Napoleonic Wars. The novel, and presumably the series, differs a lot from the more romantic presentations of life in the Royal Navy during the same era in series such as the Richard Bolitho series or the Thomas Kydd series.

Jan Needle

Jan Needle

(James Albert Needle) English author, born 1943, grew up in Portsmouth, and is from a family with strong naval and military connections. He has written over thirty novels, as well as books and plays for adults and children, books of critisicm, cartoons and radio and television serials and series. His first novel, Albeson and the Germans, was published in 1977. 1977.

The William Bentley novels are known for showing the British Navy in a less favourable light than most fictional books in the genre tend to, and for removing some of the romantic gloss that is often attached to the genre.

In A Fine Boy for Killing, the focus is much more on daily life in the ship itself, and less on naval action, battles and heroism. Needles presents a much more realist view of the Navy than any other writer of this particular era that I have read so far. HMS Welfare is helmed by Daniel Swift, a notoriously ruthless captain. Bentley is actually his nephew and favorite, and looks up to his uncle. However, what he learns from his uncle, and tries to make sense of to the best of his abilities, is a view of the common sailor as a little more than a beast – scum, cowards, treacherous and deceitful.

The novel is focused on the inner life of the ship, both among the officers and midshipmen, and among the common sailors. We witness how excessive use of force by the sadistic Captain Swift, as well as hostile attitudes towards the crew from all officers, gradually builds tremendous tension in the ship. Floggings take place more or less daily on this ship – they are given for the slightest offenses. The abusive atmosphere aboard the Welfare is thick and immediate, as is the struggle for power over the ship.

I liked this book a lot, and could hardly put it down. It is an intense story, quite dark, yet rich in its characterizations, with a good plot, lots of attention to detail and good pace. It is a book devoid of naval action, and without heroes and heroism – there are no Hornblower’s or Lord Ramage’s here – but the perspective of A Fine Boy for Killing is very interesting and quite intriguing. A great start for this new series!

Praise:

". . . A superbly written and engaging nautical adventure tale."
-- Midwest Book Review

"...A powerful story of lost humanity, its violent emotions and unremitting bleakness are shattering."
-- Guardian

"...His portrayal of the Age of Fighting Sail is gritty, realistic and thoroughly entertaining..."
-- James L. Nelson Author of The Brethren of the Coast Trilogy

Links to Jan Needle's books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle

This is the second book in the continuing story of Midshipman William Bentley, in Jan Needle’s realist and grim naval saga. The story of William Bentley is set in the early 19th century. The Wicked Trade is The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle quite different from A Fine Boy for Killing. We catch up with William Bentley, survivor of the bloody Welfare mutiny, as a midshipman on the press tender Biter, a ship tasked with recruiting sailors to the Royal Navy – which mostly meant sending out press gangs and capturing able or not so able men.

William's earlier experiences have stripped away his last traces of innocence, but his service in the London River-surrounded by corruption and greed-teaches him new lessons about the darker side of city life. When Biter is reassigned to combat the "wicked trade" of smuggling, Bentley and his fellow midshipman friend, Sam Holt, are soon drawn into a complicated conspiracy after two customs men are brutally murdered by a well-organized smuggling gang. Greed, corruption and betrayal reach high levels in the navy and the government, and the two midshipmen soon are way over their heads in a cesspool of savagery and duplicity.

The story is multithreaded, and mostly very well told. It is a book about smuggling, press gangs, whores, and love and class relations in England at the time. The books is not for the soft reader – it has some very brutal scenes (some nasty amateur dentistry for instance). As Jan Needle says, his project with this series of books is:

“What I am trying to do in my books is to get behind this myth, to show an age of desperate, ruthless struggle. In the eighteenth century, the British Navy carved out, with blood and violence, a huge portion of the world. The losses were enormous - but not from warfare, mainly. Firstly came disease, then accident: the peril of the sea.”

And he does manage to get behind the myths. In many ways The Wicked Trade is an outstanding book, even though I thought the ending was somewhat lacking and much too “lucky”. I to some extent feel Needle should concern himself a little bit more with the plot and the story, and a little less with gruesome details. Also, the plot, while exciting, doesn't have the gripping quality of the first book in the series. However, for the most part, the characters are strong, vivid and well drawn.

Overall, The Wicked Trade is an entertaining but gruesome swashbuckler, albeit without the glory of a Hornblower, the class of a Ramage or the naval action of the Alan Lewrie series. Instead Needle gives a thoroughly grim and accurate portrayal of naval existence and the life of the poor. Prepare to be horrified!


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