Able Seacat Simon: The Wartime Hero of the High Seas

Acknowledgements

No author works in isolation. Yes, we usually write in isolation, probably more than is healthy, but we invariably have company on our novel-writing journeys, in the form of fellow writers, whose work both informs and smooths the way.

I certainly couldn’t have written this novel without help, and lots of it. From the web pages that visualised Stonecutters Island, to the diagrams of the (often mystifying) interiors of frigates, and with a special mention for the indefatigable Patrick Roberts, whose quest to discover Simon’s full story, on www.purr-n-fur.org.uk, was the spark from which this novel was born. I am similarly grateful to www.maritimequest.com, which provided a wealth of information about the men involved in the Yangtse Incident. All hail the mighty internet, eh?

But there were two books, in particular, without which I would have floundered, the first being the diary of Coxwain Leslie Frank, which he kept religiously throughout the entire Yangtse Incident. An object lesson in the reality of the British stiff upper lip, it has been both a vital source of facts and figures, and an education.

I am also indebted to the journalist and author, Brian Izzard, whose new factual account, Yangtse Incident: China and the ordeal of HMS Amethyst, was another invaluable resource, not only because it contained previously undisclosed naval intelligence, but also because it was a cracking good read.

Yangtse River Incident 1949: The Diary of Coxswain Leslie Frank: HMS Amethyst – Yangtse River 19/4/49 to 31/7/49

Naval and Military Press 2003

Yangtse Incident: China and the ordeal of HMS Amethyst

Seaforth Publishing 2015