Snarley-Yow or the Dog Fiend

Captain Frederick Marryat was born July 10 1792, and died August 8 1848. He retired from the British navy in 1828 in order to devote himself to writing. In the following 20 years he wrote 26 books, many of which are among the very best of English literature, and some of which are still in print. Marryat had an extraordinary gift for the invention of episodes in his stories. He says somewhere that when he sat down for the day's work, he never knew what he was going to write. He certainly was a literary genius. That might be enough for the story, but in addition it is set in a period of British history when the King was of Dutch origin, and so many of his courtiers, and officials in general, also hailed from the Netherlands. This meant that the naval vessel at the centre of the story was travelling to and from the Netherlands a lot of the time, which gave scope for various activities on the side, as it were. (Nick Hodson)