Here are 19 books that The Kappillan of Malta fans have personally recommended if you like
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Tom Neil, DFC*AFC AE was a Battle of Britain pilot, who also served on Malta and was attached to the USAAF's tactical airforce throughout 1944. He survived the war and went on to become a test pilot in the post-war RAF. He is the author of a number of non-fiction books describing his experiences, but "Questions of Guilt" is a novel -- and that's what makes it so unique and appealing. In Niel's own words: "I adopted [fiction] believing it to be the best means of more truly reflecting the excitement and horrors of the times and in order to get away from the more pedestrian description of aerial combat and the parade of statistics and aircraft performances." In "Questions of Guilt" Niel explores the psychology of a young man slowly breaking down under the stress of combat and command. It is a insightful and underderstanding, but not a maudlin,…
Following the success of his first 'faction' book, Battle of Britain fighter Ace Tom Neil presents three more fictionalised stories bassed on real events that could not be told in his biographical works.
Questions of Guilt tells the story of an emotionally exhausted fighter pilot being pushed to the limit by the responsibilities of command and his guilt at shooting down a fellow pilot in a tragic accident.
Jamie Bell is the essentially true story of a well known Battle of Britain fighter pilot who found life out of the cockpit more difficult to cope with than in the air.…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
The China, Burma, India (CBI) theatre of war in WWII was known as the "forgotten war" even as it was raging and consuming lives. Both during the war and afterwards, it was constantly overshadowed by the vicious fighting and then the spectacular victories in Europe and the Pacific. Yet it is a dramatic story worthy of far more attention and "Skies of Thunder" makes a major contribution to shining more light on this chapter of history. Although the title, "Skies of Thunder," suggests the book focuses on the herculean Allied efforts to airlift vitally needed supplies from India to China over "the Hump," it actually has a wider lens. Thus it provides a more comprehensive account of this theatre of war, including the issues at state, the personalities involved, the geographical framework and the challenges these combined to create. Highly recommended.
From the New York Times bestselling author, a breathtaking account of combat and survival in one of the most brutally challenging and rarely examined campaigns of World War II
In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army steamrolled through Burma, capturing the only ground route from India to China. Supplies to this critical zone would now have to come from India by air—meaning across the Himalayas, on the most hazardous air route in the world. SKIES OF THUNDER is a story of an epic human endeavor, in which Allied troops…
I am a writer with a passion for historical fiction. My latest novel, For Those In Peril, is the first in a series of naval thrillers, partly inspired by my own family’s World War II experiences. My grandfather even makes a cameo as the gruff Liverpudlian chief engineer on the SS John Holt. As a journalist for more than 20 years, I had many rich opportunities to talk to the elderly members of our communities – most memorably, taking a pair of D-Day veterans back to the beaches of Normandy. It’s an honour to keep their memories alive.
Monsarrat’s compelling 1951 novel follows the harrowing experiences of Royal Navy officers aboard a corvette battling German U-boats in the Atlantic. Drawing from the author’s own wartime service, the story presents an unflinching account of naval life – its camaraderie, hardship, and sacrifice. Central to the narrative is Lieutenant Commander George Ericson and his young officers, whose resilience is tested by the sea’s brutality and the demands of war.
Monsarrat’s prose is spare yet evocative, capturing both the heroism and the psychological toll of naval warfare with striking authenticity and emotional depth.
Based on the author's own vivid experiences, The Cruel Sea is the nail-biting story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two.
Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat and mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves.
Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary, heroic men who had to face a brutal menace which would strike without warning…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I’ve been fascinated by "sea stories" since I could read, maybe before. I was born in Liverpool, my dad was in the navy, my family ran an 18th-century inn named the Turk’s Head after a nautical knot, and I’ve directed or written more than twenty films, plays, and novels with the sea as their setting. But they’re not really about the sea. For me, the sea is a mirror to reflect the human condition, a theatre for all the human dramas I can imagine. More importantly, I’ve read over a hundred sea stories for research and pleasure, and those I’ve chosen for you are the five I liked best.
Golding will forever be remembered for Lord of the Flies, but I think this is better (and so did he, apparently, a lot better).
It’s the story of people on a seemingly endless voyage from England to Australia in the 19th century, but for me, it’s like a spaceship on a voyage to another planet, like the spaceship in Alien with its own monsters aboard, the social mores, the injustices, the class privileges and prejudices, the sexual hangups, and the guilty secrets they carry with them. Pity poor Australia!
For me, it demonstrates that the sea can be a metaphor for reading (and writing). You embark on a journey, and you want to get to the end, but in a way, you want it to last forever.
Sailing to Australia in the early years of the nineteenth century, Edmund Talbot keeps a journal to amuse his godfather back in England. Full of wit and disdain, he records the mounting tensions on the ancient, stinking warship, where officers, sailors, soldiers and emigrants jostle in the crammed spaces below decks.Then a single passenger, the obsequious Reverend Colley, attracts the animosity of the sailors, and in the seclusion of the fo'castle something happens to bring him into a 'hell of self-degradation', where shame is a force deadlier than the sea itself.
Growing up, my mother often shared stories of her evacuation to a small Wiltshire village during World War Two. Far from a warm welcome, the local children viewed the newcomers with suspicion, and they were made to feel unwanted. My mother did, however, form one lifelong friendship that was very important to her. Her tales inspired me to write a novel about an evacuee’s experience for my Creative Writing MA. Living in Dorset at the time, I set my story there. The research was fascinating, allowing me to weave together historical insights with my own memories and experiences of today’s rural life.
The title of this book really intrigued me. That, and the fact that the author had died very shortly after completing the novel, requesting her friend to see it through its journey, meant I felt compelled to read it.
The other hook for me was that the story is set in Guernsey, an island I have visited and where I was aware there had been a great deal of deprivation in WWII. I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the wit, the cast of wonderful characters, and the story that developed from a chance correspondence.
The beloved, life-affirming international bestseller which has sold over 5 million copies worldwide - now a major film starring Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Tom Courtenay and Penelope Wilton
'I can't remember the last time I discovered a novel as smart and delightful as this one ... Treat yourself to this book, please - I can't recommend it highly enough' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
To give them hope she must tell their story
It's 1946. The war is over, and Juliet Ashton has writer's block. But when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of…
I am a writer with a passion for historical fiction. My latest novel, For Those In Peril, is the first in a series of naval thrillers, partly inspired by my own family’s World War II experiences. My grandfather even makes a cameo as the gruff Liverpudlian chief engineer on the SS John Holt. As a journalist for more than 20 years, I had many rich opportunities to talk to the elderly members of our communities – most memorably, taking a pair of D-Day veterans back to the beaches of Normandy. It’s an honour to keep their memories alive.
From the pen of Pulitzer Prize-winning Herman Wouk, this is an engrossing World War II naval drama centred on Willie Keith, a privileged young officer serving aboard the USS Caine.
I found myself unable to put the book down, reading long into the night. As the ship endures the erratic leadership of Captain Queeg, tensions rise, culminating in a controversial mutiny during a violent typhoon. The subsequent court-martial examines themes of duty, morality, and psychological strain under pressure.
Wouk’s richly detailed narrative explores the complexities of command and the fine line between loyalty and rebellion in the heat of conflict. His writing style makes it a real page-turner. Through Willie’s personal growth and shifting loyalties, the novel delivers a powerful meditation on honour, leadership, and the human cost of war.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a perennial favorite of readers young and old, Herman Wouk's masterful World War II drama set aboard a U.S. Navy warship in the Pacific is "a novel of brilliant virtuosity" (Times Literary Supplement).
Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life--and mutiny--on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II.
In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has sold millions…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
I am a writer with a passion for historical fiction. My latest novel, For Those In Peril, is the first in a series of naval thrillers, partly inspired by my own family’s World War II experiences. My grandfather even makes a cameo as the gruff Liverpudlian chief engineer on the SS John Holt. As a journalist for more than 20 years, I had many rich opportunities to talk to the elderly members of our communities – most memorably, taking a pair of D-Day veterans back to the beaches of Normandy. It’s an honour to keep their memories alive.
Ken Follett’s breakthrough novel is a taut and thrilling wartime espionage tale set during World War II. But there is sufficient naval action to include it in this list. I felt it was a wonderfully atmospheric novel.
It centres on Henry Faber, a ruthless German spy nicknamed “The Needle” for his deadly stiletto. Faber uncovers the Allies’ deception surrounding the D-Day invasion and races to deliver the intelligence to Nazi command. His journey leads him to Storm Island, where he encounters Lucy Rose, a lonely Englishwoman whose emotional entanglement with Faber becomes pivotal. As MI5 closes in, the novel builds to an exciting naval warfare climax.
Follett masterfully blends suspense, romance, and historical intrigue in this compelling tale of loyalty and betrayal.
The worldwide phenomenon from the bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Evening and the Morning
His code name was "The Needle." He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence-a master spy with a legacy of violence in his blood, and the object of the most desperate manhunt in history. . . .
But his fate lay in the hands of a young and vulnerable English woman, whose loyalty, if swayed, would assure his freedom-and win the war for the Nazis. . . .
The story is told by a young 'unknown soldier' in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War. Through his eyes we see all the realities of war; under fire, on patrol, waiting in the trenches, at home on leave, and in hospitals and dressing stations. Although there are vividly described incidents which remain in mind, there is no sense of adventure here, only the feeling of youth betrayed and a deceptively simple indictment of war - of any war - told for a whole generation of victims.
I’ve been fascinated by "sea stories" since I could read, maybe before. I was born in Liverpool, my dad was in the navy, my family ran an 18th-century inn named the Turk’s Head after a nautical knot, and I’ve directed or written more than twenty films, plays, and novels with the sea as their setting. But they’re not really about the sea. For me, the sea is a mirror to reflect the human condition, a theatre for all the human dramas I can imagine. More importantly, I’ve read over a hundred sea stories for research and pleasure, and those I’ve chosen for you are the five I liked best.
I love this story because, for me, it’s a perfect example of why a ship is such a great platform for storytelling, a moving stage for a compelling cast of characters to act out the drama of their past and present lives while heading into an uncertain future.
The Star of the Sea is a "coffin ship," the name given to the leaking hulks that transported a million emigrants from Ireland to America during the Great Famine of the 1840s.
It’s a historical novel but for me, a timeless story about emigration and the human condition, of refugees fleeing the monsters of their past, war, famine, disease, whatever, into what they hope will be a brighter future, and of what happens to them on the way.
Rediscover Joseph O'Connor's monumental #1 international bestseller.
In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by injustice and natural disaster, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York.
On board are hundreds of fleeing refugees. Among them are a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith and his family, an aspiring novelist and a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of a new home. Each is connected more deeply than they can possibly know.
But a camouflaged killer is stalking the decks, hungry for…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I have always been a fan of history. As a journalist by education and an investigator by trade, I love to carefully research my settings and weave original fictional plots through actual history in a seamless manner that both entertains and informs the reader. I also appreciate the need for compelling characters, page-turning plots, conflict, and tension to keep readers engaged. I have a long-term fascination with piracy, privateering, and exploration during the early age of sail. I am also attracted to Elizabethan England and the Renaissance period with its ideological struggles. I really love a good sea story, and who doesn’t? Enjoy my reading list!
This book is a gritty, realistic fiction novel about a WWII German U-boat captain and crew facing immense challenges from the elements and the enemy while attempting to sink as many allied merchant ships as possible before running out of torpedoes or being destroyed. I particularly appreciated a view of war from “the other side” and details of life aboard a cramped submarine in wartime. The book is a timeless exploration of the privations faced by seamen who dare to wage war at sea. The tragic ending mirrors reality and adds irony and pathos to the story. I found this to be a page-turner that was very hard to put down once started.
Filled with almost unbearable tension and excitement, DAS BOOT is one of the best stories ever written about war, a supreme novel of the Second World War and an acclaimed film and TV drama.
It is autumn 1941 and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic.…
