Five Into One, By Ben Jeapes

I don’t often book brag because the chance to do so openly doesn’t come along very often. So please excuse this little lapse …

This project has occupied me on and off since before lockdown, and it’s finally real! The official launch date is in September. My client Sir Richard Rowley is descended from Admiral Sir Charles Rowley (1770–1845), one of five Rowley admirals who saw service in every naval theatre of war for over a hundred years, from the early eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth centuries.The full set are the progenitor William (1690–1768), his son Joshua (1734–1790), and his grandsons Bartholomew (1764–1811), Josias (1765–1842) and Charles. Charles and Bartholomew were Joshua’s sons, Josias was their cousin. The oldest at which any of them first went to sea was fourteen; the youngest was six, and went through sea battles not long after. Some commanded ships while still in their teens. William went to sea while Queen Anne was still on the throne. His grandsons lived to see navy vessels powered by steam.

Sir Richard hired a naval historian to research the five lives, which he did with amazing thoroughness and dedication. But, he presented them as five separate stories, told in order of age with no interlinking. Thus, for example, Bartholomew sat on two court martial panels and Josias was involved in the events leading up to both those court martials; but because Bartholomew was older, we read about the court martials first, then the events. It was also an era when the same person could be referred to in different ways: Admiral Jervis, for instance, was also Lord St Vincent, so in the manuscript was sometimes called St Vincent, sometimes Jervis, depending on which stage of his life we were talking about. See also William Pitt the Elder and Lord Chatham, both also the same person. So, I was hired to rework the manuscript to tell the five stories in parallel. I could cross-reference where necessary, switch from one Rowley to another, and generally even out the tone to make it all one coherent narrative. I also added some appendices and an index.

The result is a manuscript where every word is true, though not necessarily told as the original teller would have put it, but reworked for its audience. Which is a pretty good definition of written truth generally, I think. There are times when “just the facts” doesn’t work. Just the facts, but in the right way and an artistically pleasing order – now we’re talking.

Ben Jeapes took up writing in the mistaken belief that it would be easier than a real job (it isn’t). Hence, as well as being the author of eight novels and co-author of many more, he has also been a journal editor, book publisher, and technical writer. His most recent title is a children’s biography of Ada Lovelace. www.benjeapes.com