Salt Horse: Memoir of a Maverick Admiral, Claude Lionel Cumberlege

Written originally in 1936-38 by Admiral Cumberlege as a record of his life, Salt Horse was never published. The original manuscript has been expertly edited and made readable in terms of language to a modern audience.

Cumberlege writes with some verve. He has strong views, made numerous friends wherever he and his second wife Nora went, and lived a spirited, irreverent and fortunate existence in peace and war. Some of his stories (for instance, about WW1 in New Guinea, or about his 1905 lunch in Gibraltar with Kaiser Wilhelm II) are historic and eye-catching. In many ways, the book describes a world, and a way of life, that has disappeared for ever.

Salt Horse is complemented with a timeline, family tree and Introduction which trace Cumberlege's background. An Afterword takes his life story from 1938-63 when he died. The numerous black-and-white images and short footnotes bring many of the people mentioned in the text to life.