The English novelist Patrick O'Brian is much admired for his best-selling Aubrey-Maturin series of sea novels, but he remained guarded about his personal life. Here O'Brian's step-son Nikolai Tolstoy draws upon archives and papers to faithfully capture a life dedicated to the written word. Rising from poverty-stricken beginnings, O'Brian became an immensely erudite writer, while translating works from French and penning a biography of his neighbor, Pablo Picasso. Focusing primarily on the latter part of O'Brian's life, this truthful, warm, and insightful biography is a testimony to Tolstoy's respect and admiration for his step-father.