Introduction : British naval thinking : a contradiction in terms? -- The idea of naval strategy in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries -- The development of education in the Royal Navy : 1854-1914 -- Corbett and the emergence of a British school? -- 1914-1918 : the proof of the pudding -- Richmond and the faith reaffirmed : British naval thinking between the wars -- All sorts of wars : British naval thinking and technology in the Second World War -- British naval thinking in the nuclear age -- The discovery of doctrine : British naval thinking at the close of the twentieth century.