D. K. Brown's writing is recommended for its technical information, but Clarke questions the completeness of its treatment of interwar British warship development. He finds too little attention to Admiral Henderson and regards Brown's treatment of Goodall as harsh. These criticisms draw on his own research into design work during the 1920s and 1930s. He also recalls his father's explanation that personal disagreements lay behind some omissions, while explicitly warning that his father enjoyed winding Brown up and was not always reliable on the subject. Clarke never put that explanation to Brown himself. The anecdote therefore remains an unverified family account alongside a separate criticism of the books' coverage. Brown is still described as a valuable and usually factually reliable source.
Notable Point · 4:10:41-4:14:17
Using D. K. Brown critically on British warship design
Brown's technical work receives a strong recommendation alongside specific criticisms of its interwar coverage and an explicitly unverified family anecdote.