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The Captain's Table
To sit at the Captain's Table on a big liner is an honour, especially when the captain is handsome, distinguished, and young for so important a command. But for Catherine Duncan the privilege was a source of alarm, for Robert Blair was the brother of her dead fianc‚, and he believed her to be morally responsible for Hugh's death.
- GenresHarlequin RomanceFiction
Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1953
About the author
Alex Stuart
43 books4 followersViolet Vivian Finlay was born on 2 January 1914 in Berkshire, England, UK, the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay. Her father was the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked. During her life, she frequently journeyed between India, Singapore, Java and Sumatra.
Although Vivian is well-known by the surname of Stuart, she married four times during her lifetime, and had five children: Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.
Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the WWII, she returned to England. On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, a bank manager.
She was a prolific writer from 1953 to 1986 under diferent pseudonyms: Vivian Stuart, Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay, V. A. Stuart, William Stuart Long and Robyn Stuart. Many of her novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her romance novel, Gay Cavalier published in 1955 as Alex Stuart got her into trouble with her Mills & Boon editors when she featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called "mixed marriage" touched nerves in the United Kingdom.
In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman (1961-1963). In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick Writers' Summer School.
Violet Vivian Finlay Porch Santow Stuart Mann passed away on August 1986 in Yorkshire, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.
Although Vivian is well-known by the surname of Stuart, she married four times during her lifetime, and had five children: Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.
Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the WWII, she returned to England. On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, a bank manager.
She was a prolific writer from 1953 to 1986 under diferent pseudonyms: Vivian Stuart, Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay, V. A. Stuart, William Stuart Long and Robyn Stuart. Many of her novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her romance novel, Gay Cavalier published in 1955 as Alex Stuart got her into trouble with her Mills & Boon editors when she featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called "mixed marriage" touched nerves in the United Kingdom.
In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman (1961-1963). In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick Writers' Summer School.
Violet Vivian Finlay Porch Santow Stuart Mann passed away on August 1986 in Yorkshire, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 30, 2024
Olympic Skier Heroine takes a vacation on a cruise ship. The Ship Captain hero is instantly antagonistic towards her, for a reason she cannot fathom. Heroine used to be engaged to hero's half-brother. The half-brother died in a mountain climbing accident that was ruled an accident at the time. Hero however believes that said accident was really a suicide, which was caused by heroine dumping his half-brother and breaking his heart.
The real story of course is that the half-brother was cheating on heroine and he was actually with his mistress on the day that he died on the mountain. When the authorities investigated the death and questioned the mistress, she falsely identified herself as the heroine then hightailed it back to her own country and her own husband.
Now, in another weirdly amazing coincidence that only happens in romance books, the mistress's cousin, who is yet another one in her long line of lover, is the First Officer on the cruise ship. He does his best to spread scandal about the heroine and create mischief between her and hero. Eventually, he receives a whopper of a comeuppance, getting crushed to death by a package that slipped and fell from a crane. Thankfully, he confesses all his and his mistress's lies to the hero right before he dies (lol). Thus, the Great Big Terrible Misunderstanding is finally cleared up and the h and H can have their HEA.
There is a ton of other side-romances, soap operas and intrigues aboard the ship. There is even a masked ball where someone dresses as Henry The Eighth. Everyone is terribly witty and gay and tragic and festive and British.
The real story of course is that the half-brother was cheating on heroine and he was actually with his mistress on the day that he died on the mountain. When the authorities investigated the death and questioned the mistress, she falsely identified herself as the heroine then hightailed it back to her own country and her own husband.
Now, in another weirdly amazing coincidence that only happens in romance books, the mistress's cousin, who is yet another one in her long line of lover, is the First Officer on the cruise ship. He does his best to spread scandal about the heroine and create mischief between her and hero. Eventually, he receives a whopper of a comeuppance, getting crushed to death by a package that slipped and fell from a crane. Thankfully, he confesses all his and his mistress's lies to the hero right before he dies (lol). Thus, the Great Big Terrible Misunderstanding is finally cleared up and the h and H can have their HEA.
There is a ton of other side-romances, soap operas and intrigues aboard the ship. There is even a masked ball where someone dresses as Henry The Eighth. Everyone is terribly witty and gay and tragic and festive and British.
September 21, 2015
This actually was a very entertaining story with a quite a bit of intrigue, but the heroine was too much of a doormat for my tastes.
April 27, 2024
Entertaining vintage (1953) tale chock full of drama, intrigue, and glamour (which one character notes as being almost "pre-war and pre-austerity") in the bottled world of a luxury cruise ship. If one could contract ailments from reading, I would have been, by the end of this story, a raging alcoholic (the drinking!) with lung cancer from all the second hand smoke (this should have been called The Captain's Ashtray; the number of cigs lit during the course of the story is truly mind-boggling).
The primary romance is between our "strong, silent type" war-hero Captain and our poor misjudged heroine (a ski champion, with a gold medal from the 1952 Oslo Olympics), with a Great, Big Misunderstanding--and the Captain's distrust and judgmental refusal to believe the heroine--keeping them apart despite the almost-instalove they both succumb to.
A secondary romance between the the ship's head surgeon and the heroine's cabin-mate, a chain-smoking, couture-wearing doctor of pathology, develops somewhat out of nowhere (and how I love that this 1950s romance has an Olympian and a doctor as the female leads!).
Never a dull moments: There are plenty of love triangles, melodramatic deaths (suicidal mountain climbing! TB! crushed by cargo! oil tanker explosion casualties, because why not up the body count!), a few amputations, aforementioned oil tanker explosion/daring rescue at sea, accidental overdose, and nefarious gossip mongering to keep the action moving. Not to mention ring tennis, fancy dress balls, exotic ports where our cruisegoers can air their casual racism, ship's doctors who dispense sleeping pills and phenobarbital with nonchalance, and cocktails, S0. Many. Cocktails!
This "slow boat to China" (well, Hong Kong, which in 1953 was still under British sovereignty, I believe) tale was a fun blast from the past if you can get past certain anachronisms. Naksed has the details in her review.
The primary romance is between our "strong, silent type" war-hero Captain and our poor misjudged heroine (a ski champion, with a gold medal from the 1952 Oslo Olympics), with a Great, Big Misunderstanding--and the Captain's distrust and judgmental refusal to believe the heroine--keeping them apart despite the almost-instalove they both succumb to.
A secondary romance between the the ship's head surgeon and the heroine's cabin-mate, a chain-smoking, couture-wearing doctor of pathology, develops somewhat out of nowhere (and how I love that this 1950s romance has an Olympian and a doctor as the female leads!).
Never a dull moments: There are plenty of love triangles, melodramatic deaths (suicidal mountain climbing! TB! crushed by cargo! oil tanker explosion casualties, because why not up the body count!), a few amputations, aforementioned oil tanker explosion/daring rescue at sea, accidental overdose, and nefarious gossip mongering to keep the action moving. Not to mention ring tennis, fancy dress balls, exotic ports where our cruisegoers can air their casual racism, ship's doctors who dispense sleeping pills and phenobarbital with nonchalance, and cocktails, S0. Many. Cocktails!
This "slow boat to China" (well, Hong Kong, which in 1953 was still under British sovereignty, I believe) tale was a fun blast from the past if you can get past certain anachronisms. Naksed has the details in her review.
May 3, 2019
Toxic brew of a dickish hero and a spineless heroine mixed with repulsive casual racism and misogyny. Plus, I worry for the state of these people’s lungs and stomachs with all the cigarettes and coffee. My stomach hurts just thinking of it 🤢
January 9, 2023
Yet another Harlequin that refuses to follow the Harlequin 'formula'! Alex Stuart eventually quit writing romance to write military/naval historical fiction (as V.A. Stuart and William Stuart Long), so it is perhaps not a surprise that this book starts with the ship's crew dealing with an unexpected change of captains, and only gradually sets up the romance plot -- in which, yes, the change of captains is critical, but Stuart is clearly interested in how her ship functions as a ship, even if the genre conventions (and page count limits!) don't give her a lot of room to explore it.
The romance plot itself was pretty interesting --
I haven't read another Alex Stuart yet but I have one coming up this month, and I'm really looking forward to it!
The romance plot itself was pretty interesting --
I haven't read another Alex Stuart yet but I have one coming up this month, and I'm really looking forward to it!
February 9, 2021
2.5 DNF
It wasn’t the book, it was me. Maybe I might enjoyed this better another time but this time around, I got a headache after the first chapter or so. The book started out with several characters introduced & then we got all their POVs too. We actually don’t see hero until 25% in & heroine was just slightly before that?
It wasn’t the book, it was me. Maybe I might enjoyed this better another time but this time around, I got a headache after the first chapter or so. The book started out with several characters introduced & then we got all their POVs too. We actually don’t see hero until 25% in & heroine was just slightly before that?
July 9, 2024
Rather charming story set on a ship to China, with an Olympic gold skier heroine and a captain of the ship as hero. What I really liked was how almost all the secondary characters had their own strengths and were pleasant and interesting. Her cabin mate is a lovely doctor who gets her happy ending, too.
It's different and wonderfully vintage (1953).
It's different and wonderfully vintage (1953).
February 21, 2021
Thrifted this. Hated this. Catherine has no substance. What are the chances that everyone knows something on this stupid boat?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews