Blackadder: A Tale of the Days of Nelson and Trafalgar

BLACKADDER is a book that has fascinated many thousands of young readers, both in this country and abroad. It has twice been broadcast as a radio serial play. An adventure story, there is about it a curious atmosphere of reality (some of it in fact did happen), and one can easily believe that there were such characters as Harry de Rohan and Tom Cathro, the gallant Lieutenant Butterfield and the fabulous Habbakuk McGuffie, and the compelling figure of the arch-villain, La Vipere Noire, Blackadder himself. The background of the tale is that of the Second Napoleonic War, and the young heroes and the heroine, Mignonne de Barbaroux, are involved in a thrilling series of adventures in England and France, culminating in a flight in one of the earliest types of flying machine. The tremendous climax takes place at the Battle of Trafalgar, with Nelson himself contributing to the final denouement. Altogether it is an unforgettable book, fully justifying in its style and atmosphere the very warm reception of the critics, one of whom hailed it as "a tale in the true tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson himself".