In 2005, Radio 4 ran a poll to find the nation's favourite painting. More than a quarter of the votes went to the winner, JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up. In the famous image of 1838, a squat paddle steamer and a ghostly relic from the past in the majestic shape of the Temeraire, one of the ships that fought at Trafalgar, emerge from dazzling, swirling colours of sea and sunset. Yet as Sam Willis notes in his absorbing and enjoyable biography of the vessel, Turner was the first person to call the ship the "fighting" Temeraire.

You can read Nick Rennison's full review at timesonline.co.uk

Description of: The Fighting Temeraire

Author: Sam Willis