* Patrick O ' Brian's fictional British sea captain Jack Aubrey is described as owning a " fiddle far above his station, an Amati no less ," in The Surgeon's Mate.

* In Patrick O ' Brian's Aubrey – Maturin series, Helsingør fires mortar shells at the heroes in book seven, The Surgeon's Mate, as they sail past on their way to a rendezvous in the Baltic.

A screen adaptation from various episodes in Patrick O ' Brian's blockbuster adventure series set during the Napoleonic Wars, it was well received by critics, but only mildly successful with mainstream audiences.

* The Road to Samarcand is one of Patrick O ' Brian's early novels ( 1954 ) about an American teenage boy, the son of recently deceased missionary parents, who travels from China with a small party on the Silk Road en route to the West.

One of the best known examples of coca's reference in fiction is Patrick O ' Brian's character, Stephen Maturin.

Though the genre has evolved since its inception, the historical novel remains popular with authors and readers to this day ; bestsellers include Patrick O ' Brian's Aubrey – Maturin series, Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, and Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.

Forester's Hornblower series and Patrick O ' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, set in the back-drop of the Napoleonic Wars.

Despite the revelations in O ' Brian's essay, O ' Brian's stepson Nikolai Tolstoy through O ' Brian's marriage to Mary Tolstoy disputes this, although he confirms that O ' Brian worked as a volunteer ambulance driver during the Blitz, where he met Mary, the separated wife of Russian-born nobleman and lawyer Count Dimitri Tolstoy.

During this time they lived on Mary O ' Brian's small income and the limited earnings from O ' Brian's writings.

In the early 1990s the Aubrey-Maturin series was successfully relaunched into the American market, attracting critical acclaim and dramatically increasing O ' Brian's sales and public profile in the UK and America.

While the Super Bowl XX Champion Bears were a fixture of mainstream American pop culture in the 1980s, the Bears made a prior mark with the 1971 American TV movie Brian's Song starring Billy Dee Williams as Gale Sayers and James Caan as Brian Piccolo.

In the 1971 Emmy Award winning TV movie " Brian's Song " which portrays the story of former Chicago Bears running backs Brian Piccolo and Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, it ’ s the night after Piccolo's second surgery and Piccolo ( James Caan ) is talking to Sayers ( Billy Dee Williams ) on the phone.

The Norse Gaels and Scandinavians too produced works magnifying Brian, among these Njal's Saga, the Orkneyinga Saga, and the now-lost Brian's Saga.

Brian's war against Máel Mórda and Sihtric was to be inextricably connected with his complicated marital relations, in particular his marriage to Gormlaith, Máel Mórda's sister and Sihtric's mother, who had been in turn the wife of Amlaíb Cuarán, king of Dublin and York, then of Máel Sechnaill, and finally of Brian.

When their father died, the kingship of Tuadmumu passed to Brian's older brother, Mathgamain, and, when Mathgamain was killed in 976, Brian replaced him.

Both Brian's father, Cennétig mac Lorcáin and his older brother Mathgamain conducted river-borne raids, in which the young Brian would undoubtedly have participated.

Brian Wilson's father told of Brian's unusual musical abilities prior to his first birthday, observing that the baby could repeat the melody from " When the Caissons Go Rolling Along " after only a few verses had been sung by the father.

Dennis later described the first time Brian heard their song on the radio as the three Wilson brothers ( and soon-to-be-band member David Marks ) drove in Brian's 1957 Ford in the rain: " Nothing will ever top the expression on Brian's face, ever ... THAT was the all-time moment.

Three days previously, Brian's father had bought him an electric bass and amplifier ; Brian had learned to play the instrument in that short period of time, with Al Jardine moving to rhythm guitar.

Dean H. King's life of O ' Brian, Patrick O ' Brian: A Life Revealed was the first biography to document O ' Brian's early life under his original name.

In November 2004, Nikolai Tolstoy published Patrick O ' Brian: The Making of the Novelist, the first volume in a two-part biography of O ' Brian using material from the Russ and Tolstoy families and sources, including O ' Brian's personal papers and library, which Tolstoy inherited on O ' Brian's death.

O ' Brian also wrote detailed biographies of Sir Joseph Banks, an English naturalist who took part in Cook's first voyage ( and who appears briefly in O ' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series ), and Pablo Picasso.

Brian fled to London and, although Robinson deeply disapproved of the incident, he continued to provide Brian with money until his own death, though most of the allowance went to Brian's estranged wife.

Brian's music often includes a violin solo, like Vaughan Williams's music, but whereas with Vaughan Williams the solo violin writing is long, sustained and eloquent and usually sets the lyric seal to the music, with Brian the violin solos are often poignant and brief and swept aside by the turbulent currents of the music.

In 1979, Cameo Classics embarked on a project to record all of Brian's orchestral music in collaboration with the Havergal Brian Society.

Whilst all parties were Christians, when their king Ivar and his sons took refuge in the monastery, Brian desecrated it and killed them in the sanctuary ; the Vikings of Limerick had earlier killed Brian's mother.

One of the most controversial scenes was the film's ending: Brian's crucifixion.

Brian's hard-won authority was seriously challenged in 1013 when his ally Máel Sechnaill was attacked by the Cenél nEógain king Flaithbertach Ua Néill, with the Ulstermen as his allies.

Brian's mother was Bé Binn inion Urchadh, daughter of Urchadh mac Murchadh ( d. 945 ), king of Maigh Seóla in west Connacht.

By recognising Brian's authority over Leth Moga, that is, the Southern Half, which included the Provinces of Munster and Leinster ( and the Hiberno-Norse cities within them ), Máel Sechnaill was simply accepting the reality that confronted him and retained control over Leth Cuinn, that is, the Northern Half, which consisted of the Provinces of Meath, Connacht, and Ulster.

Precisely because he had submitted to Brian's authority, the King of Leinster was overthrown in 998 and replaced by Máel Morda mac Murchada.

Once again, it was his coordinated use of forces on land and at sea that allowed him to triumph ; while the rulers of Ulster could bring the advance of Brian's army to a halt, they could not prevent his fleet from attacking the shores of their kingdoms.

Brian's first wife was Mór, daughter of the king of Uí Fiachrach Aidne of Connacht.

Brian's most famous marriage was with Gormflaith, sister of Máel Mórda of Leinster.

A third daughter, Sláni, was married to Brian's stepson Sitric of Dublin.

However, the event was notable for the impression it made on another musician and classmate of Brian's who was in the audience that night, Al Jardine, later to join the three Wilson brothers and Mike Love in The Beach Boys.

The Wilsons ' divorce in January 1979 cited allegations of infidelity on Marilyn's part and inappropriate behavior on Brian's ( allegedly offering drugs to his children ) but was considered more a mutual surrender to the pressures of Wilson's continued emotional health problems.

In 1961, Brian's largest surviving work, the Gothic Symphony, which had been written between 1919 and 1927, was first performed at Westminster Central Hall, in a partly amateur performance conducted by Bryan Fairfax, and in 1966 the first fully professional performance was given at the Royal Albert Hall conducted by Boult, both occasions largely the result of Simpson's lobbying.

For a few years after Brian's death, while Simpson still had influence at the BBC, there was a revival of interest with a number of recordings and performances ; two biographies and a three-volume study of his symphonies appeared.

In 1997, Brian's 1951 opera in eight scenes The Cenci, based on the 1819 play by Percy Bysshe Shelley, was premiered in a concert performance by the Millennium Sinfonia, conducted by James Kelleher, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

In 964, Brian's older brother, Mathgamain, claimed control over the entire province of Munster by capturing the Rock of Cashel, capital of the ancient Eóganachta, the hereditary overlords or High Kings of Munster, but who in dynastic strife and with multiple assassinations had weakened themselves to the point they were now impotent.