C. Northcote Parkinson

The British 20th century author and Professor of History Cyril Northcote Parkinson (July 30, 1909 - March 9, 1993) wrote some sixty books. These included historical fiction, often based on the Napoleonic period, and sea stories. He is even more famous for his satire of bureaucratic institutions, notably his "Parkinson's law and other studies". This is a collection of short studies explaining the inevitability of bureaucratic expansion, why driving on the left side of the road (see road transport) is natural. As early as the 1930s Parkinson had successfully predicted that the British Navy would eventually have more admirals than ships.

Partial Bibliography

Richard Delancy series

• Devil to Pay (1973)
• The Fireship (1975)
• Touch and Go (1977)
• Dead Reckoning (1978)
• So Near, So Far (1981)
• The Guernsey Man (1982)

Other Nautical Fiction

• The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower (1970)
• Manhunt (1990)

History

• Sir Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth (1934)
• The Trade Winds, Trade in the French Wars 1793-1815 (1948)
• Samuel Waters, Lieut. RN (1949)
• Trade in the Eastern Seas (1955)
• East and West (1963)
• Britannia Rules (1977)
• Gunpowder, Treason and Plot (1978)
• A Short History of the British Navy, 1776-1816
• Portsmouth Point, The Navy in Fiction, 1793-1815 (1948)

Other Non-Fiction

• Parkinson's Law (1957)
• The Evolution of Political Thought (1958)
• The Law and the Profits (1960)
• In-Laws and Outlaws (1962)
• Left Luggage (1967)

• Mrs. Parkinson's Law (1968)
• The Law of Delay (1970)