Last month we posted about the third book in Antoine Vanner’s Dawlish chronicles, published by Old Salt Press. The new novel titled Britannia’s Shark is due out on December 5th, and is available for pre-order in the US and the UK.
Joan Druett recently interviewed Antoine Vanner about his new book:
Britannia’s Shark, interview with the author
J.D.: Nicholas Dawlish is a fascinating character in the classical mode, a hero with a fatal flaw. Who or what was your inspiration for such a complex person?
A.V.: There are a number of inspirations, all linked with the period 1845-1918, in which Dawlish lived. Several charismatic and influential British naval officers were born in the same decade, Fisher, Scott, Beresford – and later Jackson – among others. They joined a navy commanded by veterans of Nelson’s day but they themselves shaped the navy that fought WW 1, having introduced new technologies such as steam turbines, submarines, radio, torpedoes and even aircraft.
These men had very adventurous careers and managed a massive amount of change. The closest character-inspiration for Dawlish belongs however to the generation that followed him. Sir Walter Cowan served on the Benin expedition in West Africa in the late 1880’s, captained a battle-cruiser at Jutland in WW1 and commanded British forces in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks in 1919. He then retired but came back into service in WW2, training with the commandos in 1941 at the age of 70. In the North Africa campaign he was to take on Italian tank crew singlehandedly when armed only with a revolver. He was to be the oldest officer serving in combat WW2, just as Dawlish was to have the same distinction in WW1 which, unlike Cowan, Dawlish was not to survive!
Though of high moral character, all these men were driven by ambition and demonstrated the necessary degree of ruthlessness which was essential to achieve what they did. If this is a fault, then it is the one they share with Dawlish!
Read the rest of the interview on Joan’s blog, World of the Written Word