Nelson's Band of Brothers. By Ludovic Kennedy. (Odhams. 16s.) INTENT
on showing that the captains who served under Nelson were, in more than a sentimental sense, " a band of brothers," Mr. Kennedy selects for his purpose the records of fourteen who stood in specially close relationship to the admiral during the
ten spectacular flag-officer years that pre- ceded Trafalgar, and with real artistry blends naval history and biographical material. Informative and stimulating, he carries the reader to the Nile, past the " dear. Palermo days " to Copen- hagen, Trafalgar„Bay, the Painted Hall and the crypt of St. Paul's. All this has been told before—very fully—but never better. The book does not belie its title. Abundant evidence of the devotion of the captains to Baron Nelson of the Nile (it was the Nile that effectively made them "a band of brothers "), the facts of their ancestry, their careers, ambitions, disappointments, their marriages. their post-Nelson days, their por-
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