The Lion at Sea

Max Hennessy is the pen name of John Harris. Born in 1916, John was a sailor, an airman, a journalist, a travel courier, a cartoonist, and a history teacher. During the War Harris managed to serve with two air forces and two navies. After turning to full-time writing, he wrote adventure stories, war novels, political thrillers, and also created a sequence of crime novels around the quirky French Chief Inspector Pel. He authored the bestselling and later filmed The Sea Shall Not Have Them, a story of survival and rescue from World War II which continues to be periodically screened on TV. Harris was unusually versatile and wide ranging as an author. Epics such as China Seas, which deals with human tragedy, war and revolution in an authentic historical setting, and the three trilogies one of which, the Kelly Maguire series commencing with Lion at Sea is reckoned to be among the finest modern war-at-sea stories written-along with African adventure novels, wide-ranging crime, mysteries, and historical fiction, all guarantee a whole library of diverse and entertaining reading full of dry wit and gripping prose.