HMS Resolute and how she prevented a war: from the Canadian Arctic to the President’s desk by Elizabeth Matthews. Auxilium ab Alto Press. ISBN 978 0 155203 96 3. £9.99.

Did you wonder why Barack Obama was taking his place in the Oval Office behind the ‘Resolute desk’? This novel of historical fiction provides the intriguing nineteenth century background. In 1852, HMS Resolute was sent to the Canadian Arctic by the British government to discover and perhaps rescue the Sir John Franklin expedition, which had disappeared during its search for a North West passage. In her turn, she was caught in the ice and abandoned. She was salvaged by an American whaler and brought back to Boston on Christmas Eve 1855. This tale is told in all its dramatic detail and the divergent characters are vividly portrayed. The whaling vessel was part-owned by a fictional abolitionist Quaker family whose Quaker ethos is well described, including a rebellious son who runs away to sea to join in the search and rescue.

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