In this episode of our naval fiction series, we step beyond the age of Nelson and into the turbulent world of the late nineteenth century—a period when sail gave way to steam, wooden warships became ironclads, and naval technology advanced at a pace that left entire generations struggling to keep up. It was an age of empire, innovation and uncertainty, offering one of the richest backdrops imaginable for maritime storytelling.
My guest is Antoine Vanner, creator of the acclaimed Dawlish Chronicles, a thirteen-volume series following naval officer Nicholas Dawlish through a rapidly changing world of iron warships, diplomatic crises, espionage and imperial rivalry. We discuss why the Victorian navy remains such fertile ground for fiction, how real historical events—from China and Constantinople to Korea, Sudan and Paraguay—shape his stories, and why the decades before the First World War were among the most dramatic in maritime history.
Drawing on a lifetime spent working across Africa, the Middle East and beyond, Antoine explains how personal experience informs his writing, helping him capture not just the mechanics of naval warfare, but the realities of leadership, danger, politics and human resilience. Along the way, we explore Victorian geopolitics, technological revolution, moral ambiguity, literary influences ranging from Dickens and Thackeray to Trollope and Gissing, and the enduring appeal of naval fiction itself.
This is a fascinating conversation about history, storytelling and an era poised between the world of sail and the modern age—a world where the future was arriving at full speed and nobody quite knew where it would lead.