Philip K. Allan Books In Order

Publication Order of Alexander Clay Books

Publication Order of Wolves Books

Philip K. Allan
Philip K. Allan has an excellent knowledge of the 18th century navy and believes that the period has got unrivaled potential for a writer. On the one hand there is the odd and claustrophobic wooden world of the period’s ships and on the other hand there’s the boundless freedom to move these ships all around the globe wherever the narrative takes them.

All of these possibilities are fully exploited in the “Alexander Clay” series of novels. Philip’s inspiration for this series was to build on the works of novelists such as C.S. Forester and in particular Patrick O’Brian. Philip’s prose is heavily influenced by O’Brian’s immersive style. He also uses meticulously researched authentic nautical detail and period language in order to draw the reader into a different world.

However the “Alexander Clay” novels also bring something unique to the genre with the cast of fully formed lower deck characters with their own back histories and plotlines along with the officers. Think “Downton Abbey” but on a ship, with the lower deck as the below stairs servants.

“The Captain’s Nephew” is the first novel in the “Alexander Clay” series and was released in 2018. The Royal Navy is fighting in order to protect England’s coastland with its ships made of oak.

After an entire century of revolutions, war, and imperial conquests, 1790s Britain is still embroiled in a fight for control of the sea and of its colonies, with France, who are led by Napoleon Bonaparte, being the leading contender.

The tall ships navigate foreign and familiar waters, and ambitious young men without any status or rank seek their futures in Naval commands.

First Lieutenant Alexander Clay of HMS Agrius is clever, self-made, and is ready for the new age. However the old world, which is dominated by patronage, retains a strangle hold on advancement. Even though Clay has proven himself so many times over, Captain Percy Follett is bound and determined to ignore his obvious talents in order to promote his nephew. Before Clay figures out a way to get due credit for his exploits, he will first have to survive them.

Ill-conceived expeditions ashore, hunts for privateers in treacherous fog, and is a desperate chase clear across the Atlantic are just some of the challenges that he faces. He brings his crew and ship through a series of adventures that stretch from the bleak coast of Flanders to the warm waters of the Caribbean.

It’s just then that high society may recognize his achievements, and allow for him to ask for the hand of Lydia Browning, the woman that loves him regardless of his station.

“A Sloop of War” is the second novel in the “Alexander Clay” series and was released in 2018. This novel is set on the island of Barbados, where the temperature of the prejudices, politics, and amorous ambitions are matched just by the sweltering heat of the climate. After limping into the harbour in the crippled frigate the HMS Agrius, accompanied by his French prize, the just as battered Courageuse, Clay meets with Admiral Caldwell, who is the Commander in Chief of this island.

The Admiral is impressed just enough by Clay’s engagement with the French man-of-war to give him a command of his own on the HMS Rush. The Rush gets sent to blockade the French island of St. Lucia and support a landing by British troops to try and take the island from the French garrison. The officers and crew of the Rush get threatened repeatedly along the way by a singular Spanish ship, in a contest which can just end in capture or destruction. And from the ranks, comes this accusation of murder that gets leveled against Clay by the nephew of his old captain.

“Sea of Wolves” is the first novel in the “Wolves” series and was released in 2020. The Fate of the world is hanging in the balance in 1941.

Across the stormy North Atlantic, battle is raging between escort ships and wolfpacks of U-boats that are battling to protect the Allies’ vital convoys. All the while, teams of codebreakers at Bletchley Park are struggling to penetrate the German Navy’s Top-Secret Dolphin code, and unlock the flow of vital intelligence which will swing the battle in the favor of the Allies.

“Sea of Wolves” plots out the lives of three people that have been caught up in the middle of the battle. There is a young crossword enthusiast, named Vera Baldwin, that has been lifted out of her quiet suburban life and tossed into the middle of the greatest codebreaking effort the world has ever seen. Leonard Cole is the newly appointed first lieutenant of HMS Protea and a guy with unfinished business to resolve. And there’s Otto Stuckmann, rookie commander of U70, a German naval veteran that struggles with the neverending demands being placed on him.

Each of them are unknown to the others while their fates spiral around one another, twisting and touching towards this final encounter which is going to change their lives forever.

“The Wolves in Winter” is the second novel in the “Wolves” series and was released in 2022. Summer of 1941. Hitler launches his surprise attack on the Soviet Union. While German Panzers drive deep into the heart of Russia, the Red Army is desperate for help which can just get delivered through the convoys of Allied merchant ships sent on through the bitter Arctic. However appalling weather and lethal cold aren’t the sole dangers waiting this crew of the small escort ship HMS Protea. They have to run the gauntlet of attacks by German aircraft and surface raiders, and the wolfpacks of U-boats that wait for them amid all the ice.

This novel plots the lives of those that are caught up on both sides. Jan Pedersen is a member of the Norwegian resistance that fights the enemy occupying his country in whichever ways he can. Jurgen Bortfeldt is the music loving commander of U-133, struggling to control tensions among his divided officers. And Vera Baldwin, who is the skilled codebreaker at Britain’s Bletchley Park and is the unseen hand that guides the Protea and her convoys through the dangers that crowd around them.

Tragedy and triumph await them all in this battle that’s fought across the roof of the world.