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Bar News - November 8, 2002 Book Review: 'The Private Revolution of Geoffrey Frost' Reviewed by Charles A. DeGrandpre FANS OF THE classic sailing novel of the great warship era of 1750 to 1850 will enjoy author J.E. Fender's story of a Portsmouth sea captain's life journey from private trader in the China trade to captain of a privateer during the Revolutionary War. The author is a NH attorney who is legal counsel for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. Fender brings to his novel a vast amount of detailed information about the Piscataqua waterway and the New England coast. The lengthy subtitle of this work, "Being an Account of the Life and Times of Geoffrey Frost, Mariner, of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, as Faithfully Translated from the Ming Tsun Chronicles, and Diligently Compared with Other Contemporary Histories" well describes the contents of this very readable work. The novel turns upon the relationship of Captain Frost and a tongueless Chinese warrior, one Ming Tsun, whom Frost rescued from Batavia on the Java Coast. This odd duo brings to mind Patrick O'Brian's sailing novels of the same period known as the Aubrey/Maturin series, which have received wide acclaim and which are passionately read and reread by devotees of the fighting sailing ship novel genre. Fender has an eye for detail and a strong sense of history. Particularly arresting is his description of Frost's return up the Piscataqua River, "this thin, crooked bastard of a river," rounding "Pull-and-be-Damned Point," sailing up to Noble's Island and turning into what is now known as the North Mill Pond, easing his ship into the mud on Christian Shore. The ending of Fender's novel leaves one to believe that this is the first in an intended series of novels that will follow Frost as he continues his career as a privateer during the Revolutionary period. "The Private Revolution of Geoffrey Frost" is a great read and will be particularly interesting to those familiar with the seacoast area of New Hampshire. Charles A. DeGrandpre is a director and treasurer in the firm of McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, Portsmouth.
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