Patrick O'Brian, C.S. Forester and Captain Marryat all based their literary heroes on Thomas Cochrane, but as David Cordingly shows, Cochrane's own real life exploits were far more daring and exciting than those of his fictional counterparts.

Valparaiso, June 1822. Thomas Cochrane has led the Chilean fleet to victory, and as the news spreads of the country's independence from Spain, a British woman, Maria Graham, watches from her house near Valparaiso Bay. In Maria Graham Cochrane meets a woman whose intelligence and spirit of adventure match his own.