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Richard Delancey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Delancey is the hero of a series of novels by historian C. Northcote Parkinson.[1] Delancey is a citizen of the Island of Guernsey who rises, through merit, through the Royal Navy, during its late 18th-century wars with America and France.

According to Charles K. Rowley, during his retirement, in Guernsey, Parkinson lived on a street named after Richard Delancey, a military officer who served under the 1st Duke of Wellington, and who died during the Battle of Waterloo.[1]

James A. Winnefeld, writing in the Naval War College Review, wrote that Parkinson had "the naval historian's eye and ear for time and place".[2] However, he said his characters were "wooden".

Published Set Title
1982 1776 The Guernseyman
1973 1793 The Devil to Pay
1975 1797 The Fireship
1977 1799 Touch and Go
1978 Dead Reckoning
1981 So Near, So Far

References

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  1. ^ a b Charles K. Rowley (2005). "Editorial Commentary – Gordon Tullock: The man and his scholarship". Public Choice. 122 (1–2): 1–8. doi:10.1007/s11127-005-6862-1. S2CID 153985090. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2021. Without delay, Parkinson transposed a fictional Richard Delancey from the British Army to the Royal Navy and wrote, as the Richard Delancey Series, a sextet of dashing nautical adventures, set in the period of the Napoleonic Wars, during which Richard Delancey progressed from midshipman to Admiral (Parkinson, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1982). This series also achieved best-seller status.
  2. ^ James A. Winnefeld (Spring 1996). "A Voyage through Modern Naval Fiction". Naval War College Review. 49 (2): 124. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021. t. The last serialist of my list is C. Northcote Parkinson, whose hero is Richard Delancey. Parkinson has the naval historian's eye and ear for time and place, but his characters are wooden and his action often contrived.