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A Dangerous Game
  • Published: 3 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529933444
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 656
Categories:

A Dangerous Game

Thomas Cochrane's Life on the Edge

Formats & editions
EBook
3 Sept 2026
Audiobook
3 Sept 2026
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Discover the extraordinary life of Thomas Cochrane, the 18th century naval hero and political radical, inspiration for the characters of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower, whose sensational exploits at sea and on land shaped the course of history

The astonishing true story of Thomas Cochrane – naval hero, political radical and inspiration for Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey – whose audacity at sea, scandals on land and battles across empires make for a tale as thrilling as any novel

Cochrane’s life was even more remarkable than the fiction it inspired. A hero of the Napoleonic Wars, known for destroying the French Atlantic fleet in one explosive attack, he was an equally aggressive force in British politics as the radical MP for Westminster.

Cochrane’s fortunes turned in 1814, when he was convicted of a fraud on the Stock Exchange. After escaping from prison, he later reinvented himself as a revolutionary admiral, helping the Chileans, Peruvians, Brazilians and Greeks in their struggles for independence.

In A Dangerous Game, the Sunday Times-bestselling historian Peter Moore draws on newly uncovered materials to bring Cochrane vividly to life. Bold, rebellious and uncompromising, he saw the world as a contest to be won – at sea, in politics, even in scandal – and played it more dangerously than any man of his era.
  • Published: 3 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529933444
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 656
Categories:

About the author

Peter Moore

Peter Moore is an itinerant hobo who is lucky enough to be able to support his insatiable travel habit (he has visited over 100 countries on his travels) through writing. He is the author of several acclaimed travel books – The Wrong Way Home, The Full Montezuma, Swahili for the Broken-Hearted (shortlisted for the WHSmith People's Choice Travel Book Award) and Vroom with a View as well as the classic alternative travel guide, No Shitting in the Toilet. When he's not on the road living out of his senselessly overweight backpack, he alternates between London and Sydney with his collection of souvenir plastic snow domes and Kinder Surprise toys.
portrait photo of Peter Moore

Also by Peter Moore

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Endeavour
The Weather Experiment
Damn His Blood
Vroom By The Sea
Vroom With A View
Swahili For The Broken-Hearted
See all

Praise for A Dangerous Game

A meticulously researched, widely accessible, highly entertaining and, at times, shocking book. Cochrane was, most definitely, the best kind of hero: purged, loved, misunderstood, dangerous, humble, and, importantly, always for the people

LOUIS D HALL, author of In Green

I could only wish Patrick O'Brian was alive to have read this

NIKOLAI TOLSTOY

Thomas Cochrane’s life was almost absurdly eventful: a fearless warrior, a naval hero, a politician and an unlikely revolutionary, he was also a symbol of his turbulent and rumbustious age. Peter Moore’s gripping account perfectly encapsulates all of his vices and virtues. A triumph

RICHARD STRACHAN, author of Night Fire and The Unrecovered