Winter Program #1: Dean King

Cam Hoggan

FBYC is pleased to host best selling author Dean King as speaker for the first FBYC Winter Program to be held at 7:30 PM on Friday, February 4, 2005 at St. Christopher’s Middle School.

In his 20 Aubrey-Maturin novels, Patrick O’Brian single-handedly reinvented the historical naval novel, bringing new acclaim and millions of readers to the genre. Dean King will give an overview of this renowned nautical series, discuss the writing of his companion book to the series, and relate how he happened to end up in Ireland and France tracking down the life story of this unusual and ingenious raconteur of sea tales. Included in his anecdotes will be Dean’s experience sailing from New York to Bermuda on board HMS Rose, the square-rigged ship that played the Surprise in the Russell Crowe/Peter Weir production of the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

While researching his O’Brian companion books in the New York Yacht Club Library, Dean King discovered the memoir of Connecticut Captain James Riley. In 1815 Riley and his crew shipwrecked on the west coast of Africa and then endured one of the epic struggles of survivals of all times, on the Sahara. The memoir is the basis of King’s book Skeletons on the Zahara, a national bestseller that is being developed as a feature film by Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg’s company. King will show a 12-minute documentary of his Land Rover-assisted camel trek in the footsteps of Riley on the coast of Western Sahara.