D. K. Brown's book A Century of Naval Construction

The book is dated, but has a good deal of information about what happened with British warship design and shipbuilding from 1919 to 1945 (he covers the earlier periods as well). D. K. Brown writes that Stanley Goodall was the greatest naval architect of all time. He certainly was a giant in his field. His first ship design was for the Arethusa class light cruisers of 1912. They set the pattern for modern cruiser design. He had his hand in submarines, destroyers, and aircraft carriers, as well. His best ships were never built: the 1921 battlecruisers cancelled because of the Washington Naval Treaty.