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  • Annapolis
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Annapolis Paperback – March 30 2010

by William Martin (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 101 ratings
4.0 on Goodreads
672 ratings

鶹

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From the days of pirate raids on the Chesapeake to swift-boat actions in Vietnam, the Staffords and their traditional rivals, the Parrishes, struggle with foreign enemies and each other to build a navy and a nation. They march across the deserts of Tripoli, sail into the South Seas to battle the British and dally with the native girls, fight aboard the Merrimac and the Monitor, fly into the battle of Midway, and look into the living faces of all four men on Mount Rushmore.

When Stafford descendant Susan Browne sets out to film a documentary about her famous ancestry, her work sweeps her into the past, to celebrate Stafford victories, mourn their losses, and confront their secrets. Annapolis is William Martin's most ambitious novel, a tale of romance and courage, honor and patriotism, an ode to the men and women who have made the proud traditions of the United States Navy.

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  1. Print length
    880 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Forge Books
  4. Publication date
    March 30 2010
  5. Dimensions
    12.7 x 4.95 x 20.32 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0765392259
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0765392251
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Product description

About the Author

William Martin served in Naval Intelligence for many years and now living in Charente, France, where he devotes his time to military history and cognac. A regular contributor to a number of military and current affairs journals, he is now writing a new biography of Marshal Petain. This is his first book for Osprey.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Forge Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 30 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 880 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765392259
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765392251
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 939 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 4.95 x 20.32 cm
  • 鶹 Rank: #2,008,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 101 ratings

About the author

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William Martin

William Martin

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Meet a “storyteller whose smoothness matches his ambition.”(Publisher's Weekly):

In his boyhood, William Martin loved what he later called "big stories on broad canvases." He read the historical novels of C.S. Forester and Esther Forbes. He sat transfixed by the big movies of the early sixties. So after college he went to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwriting but discovered that his instincts were better suited to novels. His first, "Back Bay," introduced treasure hunter Peter Fallon in a new kind of adventure that joined the contemporary mystery-thriller to the historical novel. In his twelve novels (including six bestselling Peter Fallon adventures), Martin has tracked national treasures across the landscape of the American imagination, chronicled the lives of the great and the anonymous in American history, and brought to life legendary American locations, from Cape Cod to Washington DC in "The Lincoln Letter." And after publication of his Gold Rush epic, "Bound for Gold," the Providence Journal called him "the king of the historical thriller." "December '41," published in the summer of '22, provides readers with an other propulsive journey through American history.

He has also written an award-winning PBS documentary on the life of Washington, a cult-classic horror movie, has contributed book reviews to the Boston Globe and The New England Quarterly, and has taught writing across the country, from the Harvard Extension School to the legendary Maui Writers Conference. He lives near Boston with his wife and has three grown children. He was the recipient of the 2005 New England Book Award, given to "an author whose body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region." He has also won the Samuel Eliot Morison Award and the Robert B. Parker Award.

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4.4 out of 5 stars
101 global ratings

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Top reviews from Canada

  • Charles Andrews
    5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting History
    Reviewed in Canada on September 10, 1999
    Annapolis was my first William Martin book. I have since read everything except the out of print "The Rising of the Moon". Growing up just miles from Annapolis, the title drew me in while I was looking for a casual read. Boy was I wrong. From the beginning I was enraptured with the history of the US Navy and the people who made it the greatest force afloat. His familiar style of telling a history now and then until the complete historical fabric is woven is an entertaining vehihcle that maintains the relevance of the material. For Martin, history is more than a collection of dates. It lives and he breathes life into it for his readers.
    The sequence in the South Pacific haunts me even now two years after reading the novel. Martin ably carries on the traditon of historical story telling from Michener. He has demonstrated the ability to paint on the large canvas (Annapolis), the small canvas (Cape Cod) and the personal canvas (Citizen Washington).
    I look forward to learning more about my country and its heroes great and small from Martin in the future.
    I loved this book and recommend it as a must read. Books like this should be mandated in schools however the stark nature of reality would keep this book out of curricula. Instead, students will continue to learn fabled accounts of how America came to be. It would be so much better if children were taught that some fairly ordinary people with faults like us came together and became something extrordinary. This is what Martin does best.
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  • Lynn Harnett
    4.0 out of 5 stars From Colonial Maryland to the (1st) Gulf War
    Reviewed in Canada on July 12, 2004
    In this 1996 bestseller Martin follows the fortunes of a Maryland Family, the Staffords, from a tragic French pirate raid up the Chesapeake in1745 to the first flight of a Gulf War pilot in the present generation.
    A strongly patriarchal family (with no lack of independent women), the Stafford motto remains, through the centuries, "One son for the soil and one son for the sea," meaning one to manage the plantation and one to safeguard it from pirates. And, as time went on, "one for family and one for nation."
    With the growing city of Annapolis at its hub, the story traces the rise of America. At the heart of the family history is their city house, Stafford's Fine Folly, a mansion that was built and lost and won and lost again through the fortunes, weaknesses and quarrels of generations of Staffords.
    As the book opens, Jack Stafford, 78, a liberal journalist, is nearing the conclusion of his fictionalized but faithful family history. "But when he came to the grayest area of them all - the things the Staffords had done, and failed to do, in the war that ended certainty for good - he couldn't finish."
    Jack sends sections of his book to a distant cousin, Susan Browne, an independent filmmaker doing a piece on the Stafford family. As she interviews Jack's brother, Tom, a Navy admiral, and corresponds with Jack and meets their Navy nephew, son of the brother who died in Vietnam, she begins to realize there is unfinished business in the Stafford family. Vietnam has left scars.
    Between short sections in which Susan probes for the murky secret that divides the brothers, confronts an oddly bitter family connection named Oliver Parrish, and observes with growing emotion the struggle over who gets Stafford's Fine Folly, the reader is treated to Jack's novel.
    Jack's family history is driven and punctuated by the country's wars and conflicts. Martin is at his best writing action. The sea battles of America's first tiny fleet are captivating, the sense of personal danger immediate, the smell of gunpowder and the slam of cannon balls vivid.
    Back home the first of the fallings out between the Staffords and the Loyalist Parrishes concerns the loss of a house and a broken promise. A Capulet and Montague relationship right out of Romeo and Juliet seems assured but never quite materializes, mostly because the Staffords aren't hateful enough. Or else they're just plain oblivious.
    The families' rivalry continues through the Civil War when the Staffords themselves are divided. Slave-owning but patriotic Annapolis Academy veterans and friends to presidents from Washington on, all but one of the Stafford men remain Union. Martin doesn't ignore the politics of the times but the battles themselves command most of his attention.
    Much of the suspense derives from Martin's riveting descriptions of fear and exhiliration, noise and blood and lightning-quick changes of fortune. And part of the suspense is due to never knowing who will survive. Many Staffords die in battle and Martin seldom gives warning.
    After the Civil War, while the book remains a thoroughly enjoyable read, the politics grow more complicated and the family becomes harder to keep track of, simply because there are now so many to remember. The present, and the family secret, exerts a stronger pull.
    Martin does not disappoint. In a few short chapters he brings to life the ugliness of Vietnam from the innermost circles of power to the intimate gore in the jungle. In a two-pronged conclusion, he delivers a shocking blow and a catharsis strong enough to heal the family.
    A rousing and suspenseful saga.
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  • Public Name
    5.0 out of 5 stars I want more
    Reviewed in Canada on December 30, 2001
    I found this book covered in dust on the back shelf of a dollar store of all places and thought..why not, its only a buck. After reading the first two pages I was ASTOUNDED, and couldn't believe my luck. Two pages is all it takes to be swept into the mastery of Martin's writing and carried away into another time.
    This book is an absolute MUST HAVE for anyone into historical novels, or just appreciates an EXCELLENT read. The span of this book is fantastic and from the 1700's to the 1990's keeps you glued to its pages,with hope in your heart that its been sprinkled with nevernever dust and will never end.
    I like to think William Martin knew the depth of attachment that would be aquired by its readers, and thoughtfully weans the reader of the world of Annapolis in the final two chapters. I have never been more pleased with a collection of words in my life. Get this book! You will not regret it.
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  • JeffCfromNY
    5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable, Outstanding, Unforgettable
    Reviewed in Canada on July 1, 1999
    are just some of the words I would use to describe this masterpiece of American Historic Fiction. Martin has told the American Struggle for our freedom, duty, honor, respect, independence, politcs, free enterprise, and the deep felt loses of the high price two families have paid for the American Ideals we cherish today. Martin's tale takes you from Pre Revolutionary America to a casualty of the Gulf War. "Annapolis" is American History in a nutshell. Don't let the size of this book intiminate, because every chapter is enthrawling and you simply can't stop. Martin could have carried this book on for another 800 pages at the pace this story is told. Unlike other Historic Fiction authors, Martin uses unique perspectives to tell his story's which makes his novels "Annapolis" and "Citizen Washington" two of the best Historic Fiction novels I've ever read. "Annapolis" makes "The Winds of War" dull. "Annapolis" should be required reading in all schools, and made into a mini series so everyone can reflect on what a GREAT country America is, and continue to be....
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Bonita Griffing
    5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story from beginning to end!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    As a Navy wife I did not know very much about naval history. This book kept me engaged through so many wars and conflicts that I had only heard about in passing. The locations are so vividly described. I have visited Annapolis and lived in Hawaii. I was able to see the locations in my head as I read the descriptions.

    Not only did I learn so much about history but the fictional family was a joy to read about. They were just as flawed and optimistic as anyone else in the world and their reactions to history unfolding made me think about how I would have reacted. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more from this author.
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  • Martin Thomason
    5.0 out of 5 stars Simply superb !!!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Superb. Have never really looked into the history of the US Navy, rather concentrating on the the Royal Navy instead, but this was truly an eye-opener. William Martin places fictional characters into true historical settings (akin to Bernard Cornwell and Sharpe). The result is simply brilliant, I was unable to put the book down and explored further with Wikipedia and Google Earth, real places, real events, real ships, real battles with the thread pulling hundreds of years of history together being the conflict between the Stafford and the Parish families.
    Seldom have I read a book as good as this. I cannot recommend highly enough.
    Grab yourself a copy, find yourself a comfy seat and immerse yourself in the history of the US Naval Academy and what the Midshipmen it produced went on to achieve.
    Stunning.
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  • Sara Mills
    4.0 out of 5 stars Informative
    Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Well written...a very good read packed with action and family history.
    Vivid battle accounts...historical facts woven expertly into the story
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  • poetmaker
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read For Anyone of this Era
    Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I enjoyed this book since I was of the Viet Nam era. It was an eye opener--one forgets the waste of human life and the reasons we should not have been there. From start to finish this book was a fast read--educational--characters come alive--one feels their pain and joys. Mr. Martin is a gem among writers--I discovered him just recently and have learned a lot about our history while enjoying the pleasure trip with his words.
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  • Janeen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This is a well written historical fiction novel.
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