Jacaranda (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781480125841)

Larry Jeram-Croft spent thirty years in the Royal Navy as a pilot and engineer. He then retired to work in industry for seven years before retiring for a second time. At that point he and his wife bought a yacht and went to live in the Caribbean. It was this experience that led to the idea for his first book 'Jacaranda'. There is so much history in the islands that remains forgotten. The book and its sequel 'The Guadeloupe Guillotine' seek to illuminate a small corner of history that is largely ignored and at the same time provide a thrilling and exciting story for all who love the sea and sailing. Brought up on the books of C S Forester and Patrick O'Brien he was surprised that no one was writing similar stories about the modern Royal Navy, especially with so much going in in previous decades. As he was himself a Lynx helicopter pilot during the Falklands War, he decided to start there, using his own extensive knowledge of the conflict. 'Sea Skimmer' was the result; a book based on many true stories, the main one being why the Argentinian Exocet missiles failed to explode. Directly involved in anti Exocet countermeasures and also with a grandstand seat of the final Exocet raid of the war, the book, although a novel, has an authenticity that cannot be bettered. The next one in the series, 'The Caspian Monster' looks at Cold War Operations and the little known fact that 1983 was the year nuclear war almost broke out and no one realised it. The latest book in the series is about anti-submarine and anti-drug smuggling operations in the West Indies, something else he has first hand experience of. There are many more to follow. He now lives near Plymouth in Devon, where he works as a full time writer and extraordinarily bad golfer.