Stephen Taylor (1) (1948–)

At the height of Britain’s maritime power, the French managed to commit an unbelievable amount of damage to the Brits traveling the Indian Ocean to reach British Indian colonies from the French base of Mauritious. Unfortunately the “clash” didn’t occur until well into the second half. There wasn’t enough material it seems so the author gave an inordinate amount of background about Brits in India—in a very gossipy way. The French were almost completely missing from the first half making me wonder if I were only reading about storms (hurricanes did in many ships) and not clashes. The gossipy nature of the book tracked so many people it was a very difficult audiobook to follow. Once I accepted I couldn’t follow on every person’s story, I focused on the highlights. Now that it’s called Mauritius instead of Isle de France, I’ll bet you can guess who won!… (more)