Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on July 24, 2006 at 11:02:57 from 213.38.124.194 user ACB.
In Reply to: "A well-known book" posted by Cairn a.k.a. Sayoko on July 21, 2006 at 07:29:44:
What might a 13 year old boy at prep school, hoping to join the Navy, take down and read in the school library?
The phrase is not in Southey's "Life of Nelson", which was my first candidate.
Nor is it in Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power upon History"
Nor is it in Roosevelt's "Naval war of 1812" (admittedly, a long shot)
Corbett has the first three words of the phrase.
But so does Frederick Marryat, who surely has to be a leading contender for the sort of book that John might actually have read.