Courage

Courage takes place during the French Revolution and centres on the astonishing career of the youngest ever post-captain in the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, whose exploits make Nelson's seem boring. Smith was in command of a Royal Navy sloop by the age of 19 and was the man whom Napoleon blamed for having “missed his destiny.” He was charismatic and women found him attractive. He was a leader of men, but a poor follower. He was certainly not a “yes” man, but he noted that quality in other people and they did not like him for it. Smith did not fit well into power structures, and had a maverick quality. During the eighteen century Britain triumphed over France in every conceivable location. For most of that time England and France were at daggers drawn, but there were windows of peace. English officers visited the houses of their French counterparts – much the same happened between the First and Second World Wars. Smith did spend time with a French aristocratic family in Normandy, and that is where he meets Berenice in my story. Did he really have an affair? Perhaps. Courage looks at the effects of civil war on a country. The lofty ideals of égalité, fraternité, and liberté don’t translate with justice into the lives of most people actually involved in a chaotic breakdown, no matter where they happen to stand in the social structure. A world is torn down with horrendous results, and people’s lives are destroyed. Is there is a Faustian element to the novel? Each of the parts of the book is prefaced by a man talking to a stranger who makes him a promise. The man is Napoleon, and I have him there because, as Napoleon himself recognized, the destinies of the two men were in some sense entwined. I see Napoleon as a strangely driven man, a man who, rather like Hitler, seems to have sprung upon the world fully formed and carrying with him an excess of demonic energy that wreaked great destruction across Europe and elsewhere. I think it brings a mystical feel to the narrative that sits well with the eponymous kingpin of the Napoleonic wars. Why is there a thread of Freemasonry running through the book? Anyone today who looks at current affairs with no special knowledge of events gets their information from the mass media. Opinions about how things happen are manipulated by the press, and ultimately by people in power. The old phrase “history is written by the victors” applies. There is frequently a sense today that we are not being told the whole truth about events. And that this is actually the case is proved by the withholding from the public of official documents in national archives such as the one at Kew. Documents deemed sensitive are kept back for many decades, and this policy can give rise to speculation. Courage is fundamentally a love story of separation. It also relates to synchronicity. We are governed by statistics, but we do experience events that are seemingly unlikely to occur together by chance, but are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner. The main sustaining force in the novel is the love that exists between Smith and Berenice. They are besotted by one another in an instant that can only be called “love at first sight.” She throws all caution to the winds, but then is told that the charismatic young captain took her to bed on a wager. She is appalled. She has been taken for a fool. But the reality is that he has fallen for her, he has made a real connection with her and is intent on resolving the misunderstanding , but then their two countries return to war ...