Nicholas Monsarrat

About Nicholas Monsarrat Nicholas Monsarrat wrote books about life at sea, drawing from his own time in the Royal Navy. His most famous work, The Cruel Sea, became widely popular for its gripping, realistic storytelling. He also wrote other well-known novels, including The Tribe That Lost Its Head and its follow-up, Richer Than All His Tribe.

The best place to start is The Tribe That Lost Its Head series, the earliest of Nicholas Monsarrat's multi-book series: it opens with The Tribe That Lost Its Head (1956) and runs to 2 books across 1956–1968, ending with Richer Than All His Tribe (1968). Nicholas Monsarrat's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Nicholas Monsarrat has 33 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1939 and 2008. 8 of them belong to 4 named series — the largest being the Life Is A Four Letter Word series with 2 books — and 25 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Nicholas Monsarrat's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are The Tribe That Lost Its Head (1956–1968, 2 books), Sign Of The Times (1962–1963, 2 books) and Life Is A Four Letter Word (1966, 2 books), plus 1 more.

This guide splits Nicholas Monsarrat's 33 books into 4 named series and 25 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Life Is A Four Letter Word (2 books, 1966); The Master Mariner (2 books, 1978–1980); Sign Of The Times (2 books, 1962–1963); The Tribe That Lost Its Head (2 books, 1956–1968).