Editorial A Boom in Nelson Plays seems imminent, so Playgoers must be prepared for different ideas of the Hero ofTrafalgar. Published in Punch, 20 March 1897. Author’s Collection. Many Nelsons take to the stage in 2005. In this bicentenary year it is right to have Trafalgar at the heart of our focus, though in selecting papers for inclusion we have deliberately spread our compass wider than might be expected. This year’s journal brings forward a mix of research and analysis, comment and review, and many different interpretations. Within this variety of papers one joins the Hero on the morning of the battle; victualing in Sardinia; planning his estate at Bronte; even floating on an iceberg. One paper asks questions of Nelson’s love life, some consider his strategic skills, and others attempt to draw conclusions about the inner workings of his mind. Our cast list is not limited to Nelson either, for we include artists, poets, ballad peddlers, naval lobbyists, biographers, opponents and comrades within this bicentenary story. Images of the Hero are equally diverse: from the art of Mid-Victorian Britain, souvenir postcards commemorating the Trafalgar centenary, a selection of eye patch-clad political cartoons, to an addendum of new Nelson portraits. In offering such a mixed selection we hope there might be something to satisfy everyone, just as Emma, after the Nile, wished Nelson every title and elevation: ‘that posterity might have you in all forms’. Nestling at the back of the journal, as always, is the most important cast list of all, the members, supporting the charitable ideals of this Club, and continuing vi
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