Aug 1940 – Dec 1941: 1st Lt, HMS Campanula ( Flower-class corvette).He began writing full-time during 1959, settling first on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, and later on the Maltese island of Gozo. He was posted at first to Johannesburg, South Africa and then, in 1953, to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Resigning his wartime commission during 1946, Monsarrat entered the diplomatic service. Monsarrat ended the war as commander of a frigate, and drew on his wartime experience in his postwar sea stories. His lifelong love of sailing made him a capable naval officer, and he served with distinction in a series of small warships ( corvettes and frigates), assigned to escort convoys and protect them from enemy attack. Though critical of military violence, Monsarrat served during World War II, first as a member of an ambulance brigade and then as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). He wrote four novels and a play in the space of five years (1934–1939). He moved to London and wrote as a freelancer for newspapers. He had intended to practise law, but decided to pursue working as an author instead. In his autobiography, he wrote that the 1931 Invergordon Naval Mutiny influenced his interest in politics and social and economic issues after college. Monsarrat was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Monsarrat was born on Rodney Street in Liverpool, Lancashire, to parents Keith Waldegrave Monsarrat FRCS (among the most eminent surgeons of his time) and Marguerite Turney. Lieutenant Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat FRSL RNVR (22 March 1910 – 8 August 1979) was a British novelist known for his sea stories, particularly The Cruel Sea (1951) and Three Corvettes (1942–45), but perhaps known best internationally for his novels, The Tribe That Lost Its Head and its sequel, Richer Than All His Tribe. Commemorative plaque on Rodney Street, LiverpoolĮileen Rowland, Phillipa Crosby, and Ann Griffiths

The cruel sea novel