"Excellent photographs throughout make this a well presented and highly informative book."

The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers Journal - Volume 31 No. 6, December 2023

"...this book is all about accuracy and information and we are given a quite staggering and unique excursion into the mysteries of the shipwright’s art."

The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers Newsletter - November 2023

"In summary, in this book Brian Lavery has exploited the best of contemporary publishing skill, especially in colour illustration, to provide a synthesis of the insights available in his earlier major works such as The Ship of the Line and The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 1600-1815. Here his years as senior curator at NMM bear further fruit, and this authoritative account in affordable and handy format cannot be commended too highly."

Read the full review here.

Naval Review

Nowadays, it is possible to produce books with superb colour illustrations at a rather reasonable
price. This is one of the best. If you have the other two books in the series, you should add this one. It would also interest and perhaps, inspire ship modellers as well as making a good addition to any nautical library.

The Northern Mariner, Winter 2018 – reviewed by C. Douglas Maginley Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

Admiralty models have always been inspirational to artist and model makers, so this book with its illustrations can, in a way, be considered a respectable book on art. That the author uses the photos as a vehicle to explain ship building makes it even more worthy.

International Journal of Maritime History, May 2018: reviewed by John McKay - Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

★★★★★ In a book so copiously illustrated, the reader expects only a brief overview of the parts and processes that follow. Incredibly, so many details are presented you can’t possibly remember them all after one reading. Anyone considering building an authentic wooden ship model or researching any aspect of ship construction would do well to begin with this excellent book. This is also a reference that writers and readers of fiction can consult time and again whenever their hero’s ship sustains damage.

Read the complete review here.

Pirates and Privateers, Irwin Bryan

A great volume

STORIA militare, September 2017

As a former curator, the author knows his way around the outstanding collections of the National Maritime Museum. – This is a well researched, beautifully produced and impeccably illustrated work that will become a standard in its field – Highly Recommended.

Read the full review here.

Firetrench - Julian Stockwin

Students of naval history will find this book invaluable for understanding how Great Britain maintained its maritime pre-eminence through the long eighteenth century, while those looking to understand and to revive ancient crafts have a comprehensive, readily intelligible, and lavishly illustrated guidebook. Secondly, the illustrations and the written text are integrated to create in print a narrative that is equal to and which often surpasses those of multimedia productions. Brian Lavery has demonstrated that the printed book is as flexible and as user-friendly a medium as the tablet and the television, but he also gives the reader an inducement to visit the museum in Greenwich or to explore its website.

Australian Naval Institute, John Johnson

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artefacts made by the craftsmen of the Royal Navy or by the shipbuilders themselves. These models offer more detail than even the most meticulous plans, and as well demonstrate exactly what the ships appeared like. Lavery discusses a selection of the best models from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the end of wooden shipbuilding. As you’d expect, superbly illustrated throughout.

Julian Stockwin action-adventure historical fiction