My view is that there are some really good bits in it - the chapters that are directly relevant to Austen. He traces the two brothers' careers , through letters and other documents, which is very interesting. The general stuff on the navy is explained more clearly in other books, but as far as I can see is pretty sound.

There are also some chapters in it that seem to me to be there just to make up the length and are only relevant to Austen at a stretch; on Nelson and on Emma Hamilton, for example. I did like the chapter on Darwin and Persuasion!

On the whole I would say it is worth getting for the material that is closely tied to JA's life and family, but that it would probably be good to have something like the Nelson's Navy book as more accessible for general information, and you could do without quite a lot of the second half! I have linked to it at amazon.co.uk (via Pemberley) where paperback copies are available very reasonably - I would say it is definitely worth this price.