The Cruel Sea

Description

A maritime adventure originally published in 1951. Set in the Second World War, two ships and their crews of about a hundred and fifty men are involved in defending Atlantic convoys against impossible odds.

Promotion info

A tie-in edition with "The Battle of the Atlantic" showing on the BBC in summer 2002 in three episodes.

Author description

Nicholas Monsarrat was born in Liverpool in 1910, and educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge. At the beginning of the war he joined the R.N.V.R. as a sub-lieutenant and attained the rank of lieutenant-Commander, spending his time on convoy work, latterly in command of a frigate. He was awarded the Heinemann Foundation Prize for Literature in 1951, and the Coronation Medal in 1953. Nicholas Monsarrat died in August 1979 and his ashes were later scattered over the sea.