Captain Richard Martin Woodman retired in 1997 from a 37-year nautical career. His Nathaniel Drinkwater series is often compared to the work of the late Patrick O'Brian. Woodman lives in Harwich, England, and is the author of some two dozen nautical novels, as well as several nonfiction books. Unlike many other modern naval historical novelists, such as C.S. Forester or O'Brian, he has served afloat. He went to sea at the age of sixteen as an indentured midshipman and spent eleven years in command. His experience ranges from cargo-liners to ocean weather ships and specialist support vessels to yachts, square-riggers, and trawlers. Said Lloyd's List of his work: "As always, Richard Woodman's story is closely based on actual historical events. All this we have come to expect—and he adds that special ambience of colourful credibility which makes his nautical novels such rattling good reads."

NetGalley Review: 5 starsLast updated on 14 Sep 2021"I have read quite a few Richard Woodman books, both fiction, including his fourteen Nathaniel Drinkwater books, and non-fiction, including The Sea Warriors. A River in Borneo betrays his experience as a novelist, his knowledge as a master mariner, and the research of a historian. It is a curiously old fashioned book with more than a hint of Joseph Conrad, tracing the path of a young British merchant officer from a crippling accident to a hopeful respite to inevitable doom. The language is elegant and the book is highly readable. I did not find the framing scenes, set in the 1960s and later, addictive and somewhat unlikely and melodramatic. That said, the book is well worth reading. Recommended. Thanks to NatGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review." —Evan Ladoucer, consumer reviewer