In Action with Destroyers is a superbly written and exciting eyewitness account of the war at sea from 1939 to 1945. There can have been few, if any, naval officers who saw so much action as Alec Dennis, who served in four destroyers; HMS Griffin and Savage initially before commanding Valorous and Tetcott. Commander Dennis was mentioned in dispatches three times (Norway, sinking the Scharnhorst, and in the North Sea) and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (Greece 1942).

His war service also included the important but little-known Madagascar operation, the Malta and Arctic convoys, and D-Day.

For all the danger and action, Dennis recorded his remarkable experience with a light, even irreverent, touch and, as a result, his memoir is not just a brilliant account of one man's war at sea but an extraordinarily good read.