COLLINGWOOD: Northumberland'S HEART OF OAK by Max Adams (Tyne Bridge Publishing, £6.99): NELSON'S number two at Trafalgar, Newcastle-born Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, didn't think much of his commander's now-famous 'England Expects' message.

He remarked: "I do wish Nelson would stop signalling. We all know what we have to do.''

He had his own message. Spotting some Tynesiders on his ship, Royal Sovereign, he said: "Today, my lads, we must show these fellows what the Tars of the Tyne can do."

Royal Sovereign's Tyne Tars, and/or some of their shipmates, fired the opening salvos at Trafalgar. With Collingwood appearing here, there and everywhere to encourage his men, the vessel saw off numerous enemy vessels. Yet Collingwood, as fearless and decisive a leader as Nelson, was once observed coolly munching an apple.

After the battle, with Nelson dead and many ships seriously damaged, it was Collingwood's expert seamanship that brought the fleet safely home through a violent storm. But though there's a statue of him at Tynemouth, surrounded by the very cannons that fired those opening Trafalgar shots, and a wreath is laid in his honour in Newcastle Cathedral every Trafalgar Day, he remains little celebrated beyond Tyneside and Northumberland, where he made his home in Morpeth.

Blossoming from a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship, awarded to research Collingwood's life, this attractive short account, by the author of a full biography, is designed to raise his profile - and hopefully will do so.

Harry Mead

NELL GWYN: A BIOGRAPHY by Charles Beauclerk (Macmillan, £20)

HER rise in life was meteoric by any standards. The daughter of a drunk father and with a bawd for a mother, Nell Gywn went on to become a favoured mistress of King Charles II and feted by the masses. Her fascinating life has been laid bare in a new biography from a direct descendant of her progeny with the king. In a book that vividly captures London of the 1600s, Charles Beauclerk describes how Nell famously got her lucky break when she worked as an orange seller in the Royal Drury Lane Theatre. Her quick wit and charm caught the eye of a leading actor, who nurtured her talents on the stage and between the sheets. Nell soon became a household name, and attracted the attentions of the first king to ever attend a public theatre. As his mistress, "pretty, witty Nell", as Samuel Pepys referred to her, found herself at the centre of a hotbed of court intrigue. The author notes: "One has to admire the man who could get his wife, his principal mistress and his bastard son by his former mistress to travel publicly with him in the same coach."

Nell was not as rapacious as some of the mistresses, but did get a house near Pall Mall, and became a bit of an Imelda Marcos of her day, with a rich taste in shoes and slippers. She bore the king two sons, and while she didn't get a title, as some of the other mistresses did, she ensured her son did.

She is reputed to have said "Come here you little bastard" to her son in the king's presence. He was horrified but as Nell asked: "What should I call him, was not bastard true?"

The first time author engages the reader throughout with a style which is both entertaining and informative. An enjoyable romp through the past.

Gavin Engelbrecht

THE WORLD OF ANDREI SAKHAROV by Gennady Gorelik (Oxford University Press, £20)

FATHER of the Soviet H bomb and Russia's first Nobel Peace Prize winner, Sakharov was a man upon whom destiny laid a strange fate. The scientist turned human rights activist fully lived up to Churchill's definition of the Russian enigma, but Gorelik's biography goes a long way to explaining what made him tick. Based on recently released archive material, oral histories and interviews with 50 friends, the books shows how the supreme scientist came to develop a conscience to match his towering intellect. This is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a man who transcended his time and shows how the wish for freedom can take root in the harshest environment.

Steve Craggs

Published: 28/06/2005