The Lively Lady is a novel about the War of 1812 and tells the story of U.S. sea captain Richard Nason as he is captured by the British and sent to Dartmoor Prison.

In 1969, the first two men landed on the moon. There were five other landings, leading to a total of twelve astronauts standing on the moon. A further six circled above while the world watched. Also in 1969, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world south of Cape Horn. He was the eighth of only eleven men who rounded the Horn alone before the final moon landing. Those eleven men had no-one watching them.This dramatic and exciting book, written so vividly you can feel the sea's spray on your face and taste the salt on your lips, tells the story of the lives of those eleven men and their sailing exploits, and compares and contrasts their voyages with what the twelve space astronauts achieved.'One famous astronaut spoke of "e;a small step for man, one great leap for mankind"e;. For those who go to sea, rather than into space, there's no greater step than rounding the Horn.'From the preface, written by Paul Heiney

Cape Horn's fearsome reputation and the price it has exacted from those who venture there derives from a lethal contrivance of geography that unleashes the most powerful natural dynamic forces on the earth's surface. Reaching deep into the Southern Ocean, the Cape intrudes into the flow of the water and weather patterns at the bottom of the world and funnels them into a maritime superhighway a mere 500 miles wide, building massive seas and accelerating wind speeds to hurricane strength. Currents rip at rates that defeat powerful engines. These legendarily treacherous conditions were enough to secure Cape Horn's reputation as the ultimate in ocean violence; the supreme test of sailors and ships. It is the oceanic equivalent of the climbers' Everest, and the challenge to some became irresistible. The roll call of sailors who have managed to round the Horn east-about (and more rarely, head to wind and west-about) glitters with the names of sailing legends: Vito Dumas, Marcel Bardiaux, Francis Chichester, Robin Knox-Johnston, Bernard Moitessier and Chay Blyth. This book recounts the history of the Cape through the stories of the people who've taken it on and made it round – the Cape Horners' Club. From the first recorded single-hander in 1934 (Al Hansen, who was lost shortly afterwards and his body never found), we follow these very different protagonists as they pursue the ultimate goal while battling almost overwhelming odds. Woven through their stories is a history of the Cape, from its discovery to its use as a trading corridor until the opening of the Panama Canal, to its more recent role as a pure challenge for the best yachtsmen and yachtswomen in the world. Changes in weather prediction and navigation have had a huge impact, but the pressure for ever-faster times has never been greater.