Patrick OBrian: A Very Private Life

(Paperback)

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An intimate portrait of Patrick OBrian, written by his stepson Nikolai Tolstoy.
Patrick OBrian was one of the greatest British novelists of the twentieth century, securing his place in literary history with the bestselling AubreyMaturin series, books that have sold millions of copies worldwide and been hailed as the best historical fiction of all time.

An exquisite novelist, translator and biographer, OBrian moved in 1949 to Collioure in the south of France, where he led a secluded life with his wife Mary and wrote all his major works. The twenty books that make up the beloved AubreyMaturin series earned OBrian the epithet Jane Austen at sea for their authentic depiction of Nelsons navy, and the relationship between Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and ships surgeon Stephen Maturin. Outside his triumphant popularity in fiction, OBrian also wrote erudite biographies of both Pablo Picasso and Joseph Banks, as well as publishing translations of Simone de Beauvoir and Henri Charrire.

In A Very Private Life, Nikolai Tolstoy draws upon his close relationship with his stepfather, as well as his notebooks, letters and photographs, to capture a highly researched but intimate account of those fifty years in Collioure that were the richest of OBrians writing life. With warm and honest reflection, this biography gives insight into the genius of the little-known man behind the much-loved writing. Tolstoy also tells how, through a sad irony, unjust attacks on OBrians private life destroyed much of the happiness he had gained from his achievement just as his literary career attained greater acclaim.

Reviews

Praise for Nikolai Tolstoy:

'One of the most gripping literary biographies of recent years' Sunday Times Culture

'Admirers of O'Brian's work will regard it as required reading' Guardian

Tolstoy writes with that passion to understand that characterises the best biographies Spectator

Reading Tolstoy is like reading a fine, detailed detective story To be treasured because it exposes and rebuts much falseness that has been written about O'Brian. The Times

Author Bio

Nikolai Tolstoy is an English-Russian author and was Patrick O'Brian's step-son, their relationship spanned forty-five years during O'Brian's marriage to Mary Tolstoy, Nikolai's mother. He has written a number of books, including Patrick O'Brian The Making of the Novelist, The Coming of the King and Victims of Yalta. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1979.