author
Sir Seymour John Fortescue
1856–1942
A Royal Navy officer who spent years close to the British court, he later turned his memories into a lively memoir of service, ceremony, and public life. His writing offers a firsthand glimpse of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain from an unusually well-placed observer.
1 Audiobook
Looking Back
by Sir Seymour John Fortescue
About the author
Born in 1856, Sir Seymour John Fortescue was a British naval officer and courtier. He served in the Royal Navy, became an equerry to the British sovereign, and later held the post of Serjeant-at-Arms in the House of Lords.
He is best remembered by many readers for Looking Back, a memoir drawn from a life spent around naval service, royal households, and public institutions. That background gives his work much of its appeal: it combines personal recollection with the atmosphere of official and ceremonial Britain.
Fortescue died in 1942. For audiobook listeners, his writing is especially interesting as a window into the manners, routines, and personalities of an earlier age, told by someone who saw that world from the inside.