This is the story of a great commander, Captain Robert Corbet, the most hated Navy captain of his day, and the battle for Mauritius. By 1809 the Indian Ocean was the final battleground for Nelson's Navy and the French fleet. At stake was Britain's commercial lifeline to India - and its strategic capacity to wage war in Europe.

Edward Pellew, captain of the legendary Indefatigable, was quite simply the greatest frigate captain in the age of sail. An incomparable seaman, ferociously combative yet chivalrous, a master of the quarterdeck and an athlete of the tops, he was as quick to welcome a gallant foe into his cabin as to dive to the rescue of a man overboard.

Poet and musician, Lady Anne Barnard lived at the heart of Georgian society. High-born yet egalitarian, she travelled to France to observe the Revolution, rejected numerous suitors, and lived independently. Her curious ways attracted gossip right into her final years when she raised an illegitimate child at her home in Berkeley Square.