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Letters from Arabia

Published July 2024

Arabia is a land of cardamom-flavoured coffee and camel trains, frankincense and fanatics, pirates and pearl fishers, a land where slights are sometimes forgiven but never forgotten and where friendships last forever. Letters from Arabia explores these subjects and more by taking one word from each of the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet as a chapter heading. Each chapter weaves its way through the colourful and complex history of Arabia, illustrating the origins of words used in everyday conversation and providing a Western perspective with the author’s account of periods of his life and career spent on Arabian soil. Letters from Arabia is a welcome addition to anyone with even a passing interest in the Middle East and an invaluable addition to any traveller’s library.

Letters from the Deep
Expected Publication July 2026

Letters from the Deep, like the author’s previous book, Letters from Arabia, takes one word from each letter of the alphabet as its chapter headings to show what a very different organisation the Royal Navy was during the Cold War than it is today. The RN was much larger, boasting a fleet of about 140 warships manned by some 60,000 personnel, all of them male. There was no internet, no social media and no instant satellite navigation. At sea, often for long periods, one was safe from contact with one’s bank manager and wokeness was unknown. So long as children and animals were in no way hurt, almost anything went. It took the Falklands War to refocus minds on lessons learnt during WWII, but the service was manned by real professionals with great leadership skills who fostered both loyalty and affection with humour as the watchword. This book opens up that world to the general reader through tales, scurrilous and otherwise, of conflicts, dangers, gales, ice-bound bays and hidden wrecks. It touches on the Royal Navy’s history and traditions and the technical challenges that faced those who served in it during those brilliant, heady years

RESUME

Biography of Stephen Bennett

After a childhood spent in Egypt and Jordan, Stephen joined the Royal Navy and specialised as a hydrographic surveyor. He served in Antarctica, the Middle East, and the Far East, the Caribbean and European waters. He saw action in two wars and commanded two ships and a specialist naval school before retiring after thirty-five years’ service, the last ten of which were based in Arabia. He was appointed OBE in June 2000. Stephen subsequently returned to Oman for six years to manage a private company for a member of the Omani royal family before joining a Paris-based international organisation concerned with standards for the safety of marine navigation, towards the end of which he was appointed as visiting professor to the Navigation Institute of Jimei University, Xiamen, China. Stephen now lives in West Sussex, where he is Chair of Governors at a local primary school, chair of a local charity and the "Wednesday Welcomer" at the Weald & Downland Living Museum..

Stephen first started writing about Arabia when he left the Royal Navy, but subsequent careers intervened. Having finally retired in late 2022, he started writing for publication in early 2023. His first book 'Letters from Arabia' was published in July 2024. The manuscript for his second book Letters from the Deep has been accepted for publication. The eagerly-awaited book launch is scheduled for July 2026.

Stephen is currently midway through the first draft of his third manuscript "The Year of '67", a novel based on the cadets who joined Britannia Royal Naval College that year. It introduces a villain and right bastard, Charles Masters,

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INTRODUCING STEPHEN BENNETT

Letters from the Deep Expected Publication July 2026

RESUME

Letters from the Deep
Expected Publication July 2026