This valuable book fills a welcome gap in the history of the Royal Navy, specifically the role of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors (RCNC) during the last half-century. The author served in the Eastern and Pacific Fleets during World War Two. At the end of the war, he landed in Japan and prepared a report on the atomic bomb damage to Nagasaki and was seconded to the Manhattan Project for the Bikini A-bomb tests, where his inventiveness led to a deeper understanding of the effects of atomic blast. In Peacetime he was actively involved in the design of several classes of aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and submarines, including HMS Dreadnought (seen above) and Resolution Class ballistic missile submarines. As the head of the RCNC he oversaw the introduction of the Invincible Class carrier, the lengthened variants of the Types 42 and 22 and the MCMV's. No great admirer of politicians, these memoirs detail a career within a time when the power of the RCNC declined. The author's observations are both amusing and highly critical of much that took place during these years.