Sir, - I was sad to hear of the death of Patrick O'Brian in Dublin. Many writers suffer from being placed in genres and the "historical novel" is the box Patrick O'Brian is placed in, as 20 of his novels are set during the Napoleonic Wars. But O'Brian always seemed to use this setting effortlessly and humorously as if Jane Austen had pushed away her knitting, opened the windows and written about the world beyond the drawing room. It is a world of people: colourful, emotional, ignorant, grasping and sometimes enlightened out of their time. The continuity of these novels allows the reader an opportunity to form an attachment to the main protagonists as if they were real, the mark of a truly great writer.
Kevin Myers recalls O'Brian's opinion of his novels that he would let the "works speak for themselves". I urge your readers to look past the ship on the cover, pick up one of his books and understand what O'Brian meant. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Stephen Murphy, The Town Centre, Ashbourne, Co Meath.