A thrilling new appraisal of Horatio Nelson, the greatest practitioner of naval command the world has ever seen.What made Nelson so special? His peers included many able and pugnacious commanders, the Royal Navy was already the most successful professional fighting force of the age - so what individual quality led Byron rightly to celebrate Nelson's genius as 'Britannia s God of War'?Andrew Lambert demonstrates how Nelson elevated the business of naval warfare to the level of the sublime. Nelson's unique gift was to take that which other commanders found complex, and reduce it to simplicity. Where his predecessors and opponents saw a particular battle as an end in itself, Nelson was always a step ahead - even in the midst of terrifying, close-quarters action, with officers and men struck down all round him. Nelson explores the professional, personal, intellectual and practical origins of one man's genius, to understand how the greatest warrior that Britain has ever produced transformed the art of conflict, enabling his country to survive the challenge of total war and international isolation.