title: Nelson: The essential hero
author: Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford
description: Horatio Nelson, son of a clergyman, is the most celebrated admiral in British history. He entered the navy at age 12, made captain by 20. <P>British policy was to contain the dominant European power which during Nelson's lifetime, was Napoleon's France. The two nations hated well. <P>Providence sailed with Nelson at Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain. "England expects every man will do his duty." His greatly outnumbered forces decimated a combined French and Spanish fleet. The victory cost Nelson his life, but made him immortal. <P>"A vivid portrait of Nelson...highly entertaining and accurate." (The London Times)
zlib_text: CHAPTER ONE
  
  
  “Here we go again. Looks like another hit-and-run accident,” said Hero Nelson
  of the Manchester Murder Investigation Team.
  
  
  In the passenger seat, his partner for the past two years, Julie Shaw, was
  fiddling with her new iPhone. The darn thing had been annoying the hell out of
  him for almost half an hour while Julie was busy going through the different
  ring tones, trying to pick a suitable one. Every time he thought she had
  settled on one, she disappointed him by picking up the phone again, only to
  begin going through the darn tunes for the hundredth time. Hero, or Patch to
  his friends, was generally known to be a patient man—until he was pushed. And
  he was being pushed to the limits.
  
  
  “Are you listening to me, DS Shaw?”
  
  
  “Er…sorry. I was busy playing,” Julie mumbled, tucking her phone away into her
  jacket pocket.
  
  
  “You know how much those things annoy me. Trying to get in my bad books again,
  are you?” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his partner’s head movi