In The Hornblower Companion, C.S. Forester sets out to describe and illuminate, using beautifully drawn charts, all the incidents which his fictional hero experienced. Starting with Mr Midshipman Hornblower and running through to Hornblower in the West Indies, he has picked out some thirty adventures and incidents which are clearly described and vividly illustrated so that any reader of the novels may have the clearest possible understanding of both their significance and the sequence of events which occur in the novels. In the second part of the book the author describes how the novels were written, what inspired the adventures and how they relate to the real world of the Royal Navy.