Dawson Saga Books

Edwardian England. When the sun shone brightly and the western world was at peace. But would the peace last? Far away, Japan was at war with Russia in 1905 and there the seeds of friendship were being sown which would eventually tear apart the Dawson family with their long naval tradition. Back home in Dorset the Dawson family was growing up. Rear Admiral Ralph Dawson had retired from the Navy after nearly fifty years, and he and his devoted wife Harriet watched with affection as their six children grew up. The eldest, Jack, in his twenties, was already making a career in the Royal Navy, and had just returned from the Far East where he had witnessed the Japanese Navy’s destruction of the Russian fleet. There he met for the first time a young and likeable German naval officer Bruno von Eltz. Georgina, Jack’s sister, also in her early twenties, already a rebel, falls for Bruno when he is later attached to the German Embassy in London, and falling under his spell betrays herself, her family, her fiancé and finally her country. Jack is blamed for the treason and is outcast by his family. He becomes enmeshed with Helene, Bruno’s sister, nearly falling for her treacherous wiles as she offers him her body in return for the plans of Britain’s latest mighty ship the Dreadnought. In their different ways, Georgina and Jack pay for their transgressions and the happiness of the Dawson family is split apart as war looms ever nearer. As the war clouds gather, the triumphs and tragedies of the Dawson family entwine themselves with the fortunes of Bruno and Helene von Eltz, whose loyalties — strained and tested — lie with their duties to Germany. Will the Dawson family survive this tumultuous time? Or will the days of wine and roses be forever gone? Espionage, deceit, love, betrayal and death are all bound up in this poignant narrative, with its exciting and stirring naval scenes. The tranquility of Edwardian England with its village cricket matches, strawberries and cream teas, fades into the noise and brutality of war with rivers of blood and the bitter taste of wanton destruction and unnecessary death.

World War I tears families and friends apart as the British Dawson sons serve with the Royal Navy and the German von Eltz siblings vow to bring about the defeat of England

Two young men--a British Royal Navy lieutenant and an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot--become friends in 1937, a relationship that will have tragic consequences as their two countries plummet towards war

On 7th December 1941, Japan entered World War II by simultaneously attacking the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines and Malaya. Appalled by the decision, Commander Hirada Tanawa of the Imperial Japanese Navy nevertheless carries out his orders with skill and daring, and leads the final assault on the British capital ships Prince of Wales and Repulse off the coast of Malaya which results in their being sunk on 10th December, even though he knows that his cousin-in-law Jack Dawson is serving on the Prince of Wales. From then on, for four bitter years, the two friends are enemies as the grim drama of their lives is played to a finish, against a background of domestic turmoil. Honouring naval codes and duty whilst knowing that each day could be their last, both men endure grave uncertainty but equally they are forced to make decisions they never imagined they would be faced with... Back in England the political landscape is rapidly changing, loyalties are tested and frequent air raids have rendered daily life more transient than ever. Divorce, racism, one mother’s nervous breakdown and another woman’s uninhibited lust leave behind a shattered legacy. What does the future hold for lost lovers and families who feel betrayed? How Jack and Tanawa attempt to cope with the traumas of their loved ones and at the same time fight the epic naval battles which set these years alight is the theme of this final chapter in Christopher Nicole’s fictional history of the modern Royal Navy. The Last Battle is the final episode of the Dawson Saga which was preceded by Days of Wine and Roses