A review by miramichijim
Desperation: The Queen of Swansea by Gary Collins

5.0

I loved this book; I could find no fault with it, no low points, no extraneous material and certainly, no boring passages or ramblings. Mr Collins is clearly at the top of his storytelling game. Also, I was pleased to see the term "Inspired by True Events" on the cover. As Mr Collins mentioned, there was little accurate information to be found about this account, and of course, there were no survivors. Much if not all of the dialogue had to be invented as well as the backstories of the crew and passengers, making this what I call "fictionalised history" (as opposed to historical fiction in which a story occurs at a particular time in history). If you like your history straight up, recounting only the available recorded facts, then Mr Collins' books may not be for you, and in this case, there is not much to relate since the historical evidence is scanty. (It is not even known where all the bodies were buried.) However, I am comfortable with it as long as I know up front that this is the approach the author is going to take. Desperation: the Queen of Swansea is a true-life tragic story, exceptionally told by "the story man" of Newfoundland. Highly recommended for those that enjoy reading about maritime and nautical history.