The glorious first of June : fleet battle in the reign of terror

France, early summer 1794. The French Revolution has been hijacked by the extreme Jacobins and is in the grip of The Terror.

While the guillotine relentlessly takes the heads of innocents, two vast French and British fleets meet in the mid-Atlantic following a week of skirmishing.

After fierce fighting, both sides claim victory. In The Glorious First of June Sam Willis not only tells, with thrilling immediacy and masterly clarity, the story of an epic and complex battle, he also places it within the context of The Terror, the survival of the French Revolution and the growth of British sea-power.