When I first review books I flip through the pages and see where luck takes me. When reviewing How to Survive in the Georgian Navy my fingers selected page 63 with the fairly-ominous headline of Yellow Fever and Typhus. In this day and age of medical marvels and long life it is somewhat sobering to think about the life expectations of an average sailor aboard a Georgian sailing warship of the period. Most sailors would rarely see it into their forties, with most having succumbed to a raft of illnesses, diseases and accidents. It is a misconception that most sailors met their end at the end of a musket ball, sabre or gunshot - most died through malnutrition or disease and they died in their thousands.

The second time I flicked through the pages, my fingers fell on page 123 with the headline of Prostitution in Ports, from where many sailors caught a large number of the diseases that ultimately killed them. This compact hard back book from Osprey Publishing is, despite the litany of ways to die in the Georgian Navy, a jolly good read for history buffs and is full of useful, interesting and distracting information about the Royal Navy during the Georgian period. Other topics covered include shipwrecks, mutiny and exploration. Incidentally the author, Bruno Pappalardo is the Principal Records Specialist (Naval) at the National Archives at Kew, from where he drew much of his information from the amazing collection of archives contained there.