The Forests of the Night the war as it really was, as James Kirkup observed, an "acid portrait of those who played at being members of the [French] Resistance". The novel's theme and title come from the opening lines to William Blake's poem "The Tyger": "Tiger, tiger, burning bright - in the forests of the night." "The Forests of the Night" was translated in 1951 into English by Nora Wydenbruck; it has not been re-printed since. Francis is the son of the Comte de Balansun, whose family resides in the French town of Saint-Clar, near the Pyrenees. Francis, in the beginning of the novel, skips
HMS Tyger and Second Anglo–Dutch Wars (including the Battle of Solebay). She served in the Mediterranean, in the defense of Gibraltar, in actions against Guadeloupe and Martinique and the blockade of Cartagena, Colombia in 1741. "Tyger" was rebuilt for the first time in 1681 by John Shish at Deptford Dockyard as a 44-gun fourth rate ship of the line. She was rebuilt a second time at Rotherhithe in 1702, as a fourth rate of 46-54 guns. Her final rebuild was at Sheerness Dockyard, where she was relaunched on 12 November 1722 as a 50-gun fourth rate to the 1706 Establishment. In December