A Flag of Truce

John Pearce #4

by David Donachie

John Pearce comes back from Corsica demanding that Captain Barclay of HMS Brilliant, the man who originally pressed him and his fellow Pelicans into the Navy, be tried at home by a civilian court. Against the background of the ongoing siege of Toulon and with the Revolutionary Army massing to attack, no-one in authority sees this as a good time to accede to his requests. Barclay’s patron Admiral Hotham contrives a way out of the dilemma. He staffs the ship Pearce captured in Corsica with members of the Revolutionary Navy refusing to serve under the Bourbon flag and gives it to Henry Digby, with Pearce and his Pelicans under him, so that they may transport the renegade French sailors to an Atlantic port and set them free. Whilst Pearce is gone Hotham fixes a court martial where Barclay is found innocent for lack of evidence, a ruse that leads to an open breach with his wife Emily. Pearce eventually returns to the siege having survived conflict on both land and water only to find Barclay acquitted and exempt from further trial under the law of double jeopardy. Despite clear warnings not to do so he begins a romance with Emily Barclay, but mayhem surrounds the evacuation of Toulon and the revolutionary forces, including Napoleon Bonaparte, are closing in to retake the port...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Nautical, Historical, Military Fiction

442 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2008

About the author

aka Tom Connery, Johnny 'Two Combs' Howard, Jack Ludlow, Jack Cole.

David Donachie was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has had a variety of jobs, including selling everything from business machines to soap. He has always had an abiding interest in the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which he drew upon for the many novels he has set in that period. The author of a number of bestselling books, he lived in Deal with his wife, fellow A&B author Sarah Grazebrook.