Having grown up with Hornblower and Forester, O'Brian was clearly a step or two better and it's interesting to hear at least in part why. I'm about to embark on a reading project focused on Age of Sail novels placed as best I can in chronological order, so I'll be putting down an O'Brian and picking up a Pope, to be followed by a Kent and then maybe a Forester reread. It should be an interesting project!
The funny thing is I like editing colleagues’ work, if I can get into their mindset and help make clearer what they write. My assistance is rooted in every bit of advice I got from good teachers, with a painfully long time to incorporate their corrections into my own writing.
POB is my favorite. I've been rereading him to capture his brevity and the way he does eventually explain most things, but without a page of exposition, just an offhand comment by Jack.
David Ignatius is also the son of former Secretary of the Navy Paul Ignatius. Still living at age 104, the elder Ignatius served in the last few years of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.
Having grown up with Hornblower and Forester, O'Brian was clearly a step or two better and it's interesting to hear at least in part why. I'm about to embark on a reading project focused on Age of Sail novels placed as best I can in chronological order, so I'll be putting down an O'Brian and picking up a Pope, to be followed by a Kent and then maybe a Forester reread. It should be an interesting project!
The funny thing is I like editing colleagues’ work, if I can get into their mindset and help make clearer what they write. My assistance is rooted in every bit of advice I got from good teachers, with a painfully long time to incorporate their corrections into my own writing.
Great column and great advice for writers.
POB is my favorite. I've been rereading him to capture his brevity and the way he does eventually explain most things, but without a page of exposition, just an offhand comment by Jack.
David Ignatius is also the son of former Secretary of the Navy Paul Ignatius. Still living at age 104, the elder Ignatius served in the last few years of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.
My dad probably should have declared that he knows Ignatius personally...