History Men

Peter Hitchens:

"I am asked about what to read if you feel the urge to know more history but aren't interested in academic tomes. Here are a few suggestions: One absolute recommendation is the Flashman series, by George MacDonald Fraser. Some of these books are works of genius, some merely brilliant, but each is beautifully researched and tells the truth about the Victorian era in many different aspects. Several C.S.Forester novels, especially 'Death to the French', bring the past wonderfully to life. The essays and journalism of George Orwell, beautifully written, are a fine introduction to the ferment of the 1930s, the real atmosphere of war and of post-war Britain. Several Evelyn Waugh novels, especially the 'Sword of Honour' trilogy and 'Put out more flags' also tell you much about what England was really like in living memory, and tell some bitter but true stories about warfare. If you can get John Harris's 'Covenant with Death', you will find a clear, believable but fictional account of an astonishing story from another war - the men (described so well in Larkin's poem 'MCMXIV') who rushed to the colours in 1914 and died by the thousand on the Somme less than two years later..."

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Mr. Hithchens does not mention Patrick O'Brian, but I would...