Book excerpt: "In Jack Aubrey Commands, Brian Lavery relates the naval fiction of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester to the real world inhabited by famous Royal Navy heroes such as Lord Nelson, Sir Sidney Smith and Thomas Cochrane. It draws on the experiences and activities of men such as Frederick Marryat, the founder of naval fiction, the Austen brothers whose sister Jane created our most intimate picture of shore life in the period, and Nelson's chaplain, Alexander Scott, who also served as a part-time spy. All these individuals and others provided inspiration for Patrick O'Brian's character of Jack Aubrey. The historical facts behind the great works of naval fiction are fully explored while the text fully contextualises a number of key episodes and characters as well as the minutiae of naval life in the era of Nelson as it is put forward in these enduring sea stories."--BOOK JACKET.