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The Greatest Enemy
The Greatest Enemy
Aug 1, 2025 12:01 PM

Author:Douglas Reeman

The Greatest Enemy

This compelling nautical adventure from multi-million copy bestselling author Douglas Reeman will have readers of Clive Cussler, Bernard Cornwell and Wilbur Smith gripped with its expertly combined characterisation and vivid battle scenes. You'll feel like you are on the bridge yourself...!

'One of our foremost writers of naval fiction' -- Sunday Times

'I could not put it down. I enjoyed every single page of this seafaring tale.' -- ***** Reader review

'Enthralling - just had to keep reading to the end' -- ***** Reader review

'A cracking read' -- ***** Reader review

'Exceptional' -- ***** Reader review

'Nail biting to the end' -- ***** Reader review

****************************************************************************

Twenty-five years ago, HMS Terrapin was part of a crack hunter-killer group in the Battle of the Atlantic. Now she is working out her last commission in the Gulf of Thailand.

To Lieutenant-Commander Standish, the frigate seems to mark the end of his hopes of a career in the Navy. Then a new captain arrives, a man driven by an old-fashioned, almost obsessive patriotism. And under his stubborn leadership, Standish and the crew discover a long-forgotten unity of purpose...

She was one of the deadliest ships of the war. Her greatest heroics may still lie ahead.

Reviews

A glorious, sensuous, grown-up novel, intelligent and passionate.

—— Tessa Hadley

Harvey has struck gold… Perhaps because it is so intimate, so honest, so raw, Dear Thief provokes you to think about life, and Life, and your own life.

—— Claire Kilroy , Guardian

Beautiful... Exhilarating... Remarkable

—— James Wood , New Yorker

Compassionate, matter-of-fact and mysterious about death and its ultimate transforming… Harvey offers an incandescent vision of hope and acceptance.

—— Catherine Taylor , Sunday Telegraph

A quiet, unusual book, full of sad truths. I loved this epistolary novel of friendship, betrayal and forgiveness.

—— Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN , Guardian

Harvey’s writing is stunning: an effortless spool that winds back the layers… Brilliant.

—— Kate Saunders , The Times

Singular and haunting.

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail

A hypnotic read about jealousy, nostalgia and how being wronged by a friend can bruise you as badly as a broken heart.

—— Good Housekeeping

Indubitably intelligent, Harvey’s prose is also quite simply ravishing.

—— Telegraph

Harvey’s writing is clever and thoughtful, filled with striking insights and wisdom.

—— Suzi Feay , Tablet

By far the best thing she’s done.

—— Gaby Wood , Daily Telegraph

From its opening sentences, this novel of jealousy and friendship holds you in its grip…. Harvey’s prose manages to be both wistful and unpretentious, capturing perfectly the relationship between two women in all its complexity.

—— Bath Chronicle

Compassionate, matter-of-fact, and mysterious about death and its ultimate transforming.

—— Catherine Taylor, five stars , Telegraph

Harvey handles the most difficult of subjects- ageing and death- with her distinctive brand of mystic pragmatism.

—— Emma Hadestadt , i

Atmospheric

—— Claire Kilroy , Guardian

Dear Thief is one of those quiet and clever books that is about everything and nothing all at once.

—— Savidge Reads

With a few deft strokes Winterson creates Shakespeare’s characters in contemporary clothing keeping me in suspense throughout. It is a triumph and a good omen for this ambitious new project.

—— Daily Express

Reading Jeanette Winterson takes you to a place where words have power, and are capable of transforming people's lives.

—— Alex Klineberg , Huffington Post

[A] witty and funky adaptation

—— Woman's Way

Winterson largely and ingeniously stays faithful to Shakespeare’s magical realist plot… and captures the play’s quizzical, questioning, redemptive spirit while remaining impressively true to her own.

—— CA, four stars , Metro

Wonderfully imaginative

—— Juliet Nicholson , Evening Standard

Spins through an exhilarating array of genres. The sensational opening chapter enmeshes the reader in a rollercoaster ride of tragedy, comedy, thriller, fantasy, chicklit, plus a few pages of raunchy sex

—— David Fothergill , Guardian

The Gap of Time takes nothing away from The Winter's Tale. If anything it might add to it, or at least to its resonance and mystery. It is an impressive achievement, especially as Winterson manages the contradictions of comedy and tragedy in a way which suits both their modern likelihood and their moral implications

—— Mary Leland , Irish Examiner

A witty retelling.

—— Joanna Kavenna , Literary Review

Her new story retains the essence of Shakespeare, but filters his comedy and sentiment through feminism and technology.

—— The Culture Trip

Filled with her wit and seriously thought-provoking ideas, Winterson’s writing is a pleasure… This is a well told, beautiful, magical and wonderfully evocative story which resonates with our contemporary lives.

—— Eric Page , Gscene

The Gap of Time is an ingenious retelling of The Winter’s Tale… [Winterston] Made it new with her own bold and poetic prose and her insights into love and grief. There are passages here so concisely beautiful they give you goosebumps… Perhaps most surprising is how readily the plot translates to a modern context; how plausible this version seems, for all its knowing self-reference.

—— Stephanie Merritt , Guardian

Those addicted to Shakespeare’s marvellous depiction of jealousy, guilt and teenage joie de vivre will be identifying and falling in love again with characters and their fateful lives… Plunge into The Gap of Time as a fresh, vibrant example of contemporary writing with an original, thought-provoking storyline… The Gap of Time is a top-quality novel.

—— Phillip Fisher , British Theatre Guide

Stylish and accomplished.

—— Peter Carty , International Business Times

The Winter’s Tale meets House of Cards. Engrossing and ingenious, it deftly rewrites Shakespeare’s lamentation of destructive jealousy as an indictment of deregulated capitalism.

—— Peter Smith , Times Higher Education

Winterson charms with her playful translation of the cast from the courts of Sicily and Bohemia into our own quotidian life

—— Patricia Storace , The New York Review of Books

She deftly captures all the magic and raw emotion of the original.

—— Irish Times
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