The Cruel Sea - Nicholas Monsarrat

Written by a Royal Navy officer who served in corvettes and on convoys, drawing on his experiences and written less than ten years after the end of the war, The Cruel Sea is considered the best novel about the Battle of the Atlantic, and one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is not an easy read: it is realistic about the casualty figures, the injuries, and the hard choices the escort captains had to make.

Unusually for a war story it doesn't end with the sinking of the ship. The HMS Compass Rose is torpedoed, but instead of ending the story it follows the few survivors onto the HMS Saltash, and their continued service until the end of the war, as this is the story of people, not a single ship.

The Cruel Sea is not a Boy's Own adventure - it is about the grinding terror of escort duty in the Battle of the Atlantic day after day, escorting unarmoured merchant ships across the Atlantic in danger from convoy raiders and U-boats and knowing that this is Britain's only lifeline. The reward for completing that duty? To do it again, and again, to keep family and friends alive.

The novel was brought to screen by Ealing Studios, in a critically acclaimed film. With a cast including Jack Hawkins. Donald Sinden and Denholm Elliot, directed by Karl Friend, it was released to massive critical and audience acclaim.

It pulled no punches, and in a country where rationing and food shortages were still common, and the effects of the war were still being felt, it struck a chord with the audience. Given the high casualty figures in the UK, many of the people watching it for the first time would have lost people they had known in the war.

The novel pulls no punches, and nor does the film. While, as Donald Sinden says, it is about what you don't see, the film makes it quite plain what is occurring, particularly in the heart-breaking choice the Captain has to make when there are crewmen in the water - and a U-boat hiding beneath them. Even filming it was dangerous, as all the stunts and ships were real. As Donald Sinden details, when the Compass Rose runs over a crewman struggling in the water, that was actually a stuntman being hit by a Royal Navy Corvette at full clip.