W H G Kingston: 144 books

Chapters 1 to 4 constitute "The Ferryman of Brill", while the other seven chapters are short stories on their own. All these stories had previously appeared in early volumes of "The Quiver". They were collected and published by Cassell's, who were not Kingston's usual publishers, and the book came...

This is not a long book, but is very much in the Kingston style, that is, the style he employs when writing about land-based adventures, as opposed to sea-based ones. It is quite difficult to follow who is who in this story, and why they are doing what they do. I suggest that you use a pen and paper...

The present volume gives a capital description of life in the Navy in days of the old three-decker, and many interesting particulars of the naval warfare in the revolutionary period, including the battle of the "glorious first of June." It differs from the average boys' story in one important respect....

This is a typical Kingston book, very skillfully written, with lots of difficult situations very well described. But what is worth remembering is that it is probably the last book Kingston ever wrote, for he had already been diagnosed with a rapid and terminal illness, which I suppose to have been cancer....

This is quite a long book, but it is full of action, and in between the actions there are tales being told about even more action and interesting situations, rather in the style of Captain Marryat. This edition was printed by Cassell's for use as an English language course-book. At the end of the book...

Here is another book in the true Kingston style - lots of swimming, sharks, wrecks, battles, pirates, woundings. Paul goes to sea in the first place because his father has lost a legalcase in which the Devereux family had been claiming his estates and land. To Paul's surprise, who should be in the midshipman's...

The book, quite a long one, is concerned with the adventures of a boy, Walter Heathfield, and of his sister Emily. They appear on the scene in chapter one, in rather a dramatic fashion, as they are rescued from a sinking ship, along with their dying father, moments before the ship finally vanishes....

Another vintage Kingston book, this time with a background of the 1650s, when Cromwell and the Roundheads were in power. With acknowledgement to Chamber's Biographical Dictionary we read: Blake, Robert (1599-1657) English naval commander, the son of a merchant. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he...

Sadly, this was the last book Kingston wrote. He was diagnosed with a rapid fatal illness while he was writing it, and he used the opportunity of bidding his young readers farewell in the Preface. There is a lot of action in the book, from encounters with the Barbary Pirates in what is now called Morocco,...

This is one of Kingston's longest adventure stories, but possibly also one of his best. The eponymous hero is tracked through his time at sea as a midshipman. Exciting events follow on each other's heels, fast and furious. Very well written, showing the extraordinary depth of knowledge that the author...

This is a most remarkable book, copiously illustrated with interesting engravings. A young boy and his brother are sent home early from their boarding-school, because of illness among the pupils. Their father is a retired captain in the Royal Navy, who has had a beautiful yacht built. He suggests...

This is rather a standard Kingston book, with adventures this time shore-based in Africa, which, at the time of the story, the early nineteenth century, was largely unknown. The two young men sail as supercargoes, a post which at that time existed, but which later was to be known a ship's clerk. ...

This book is very largely about the work of Christian missionaries in the Pacific. There is a thin plot, but otherwise we are treated to lengthy texts extracted from the reports of various missionaries, and of Naval officers who had visited the area. The book is dressed up with a cover and a title that...

This is another book by Kingston on the theme of a youngster whose father has not returned from a voyage at sea, and whose mother therefore is almost destitute, with several younger children to house and feed. Luckily her brother Jack, the Mate of the Lily, is home, and though pledged in marriage, offers...