Author:Brendan Simms
'A superb little book that is micro-history at its best' Washington Post
'The brevity of this remarkable book belies the amount of work that went into it. One can only marvel at how well Professor Simms has gone through the original sources - the surviving journals, reminiscences and letters of the individual combatants - to produce a coherent and gripping narrative' Nick Lezard, Guardian
The true story, told minute by minute, of the soldiers who defeated Napoleon - from Brendan Simms, acclaimed author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy
Europe had been at war for over twenty years. After a short respite in exile, Napoleon had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent. At the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe.
Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports. Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history.
The brevity of this remarkable book belies the amount of work that went into it. One can only marvel at how well Professor Simms has gone through the original sources - the surviving journals, reminiscences and letters of the individual combatants - to produce a coherent and gripping narrative
—— Nick Lezard , The GuardianA superb little book that is micro-history at its best
—— Paul O’Keeffe , Washington PostMr. Simms's fluent and meticulously researched narrative provides enough context to engage not only specialists, but also readers unfamiliar with the broader historical background...by focusing upon a particular episode, rather than the bigger picture, Mr. Simms manages to reflect the grim reality of Waterloo better than some more comprehensive surveys
—— Stephen Brumwell , The Wall Street Journal[Simms] tells more about realities of boots-on-the-ground combat than any other Waterloo book I have encountered. A five-gun read.
—— Joseph C. Goulden , Washington TimesLarson's irresistibly pacey narrative moves between the various scenes of action, conjuring them up in vivid detail...the sources are remarkable...[his] detailed conversational endnotes are an added bonus.
—— Lucy Moore , LITERARY REVIEWA gripping piece of narrative history which moves almost with the same speed as Schwieger's torpedo.
—— NAVY NEWSLarson has an eye for haunting, unexploited detail...illuminating...suspenseful.
—— SCOTLAND ON SUNDAYThe master of popular non-fiction...a gripping account.
—— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYLarson's page turner brings the disaster to life.
—— EVENT magazineLarson's approach to history resembles a novelist's... a rattling read.
—— GuardianGripping...absorbing...however, it is when dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy, along with the attendant conspiracy theories, that Larson breaks new ground. I found it very hard to put down.
—— SOLDIER magazineLarson . . . writes non-fiction books that read like novels, real page-turners. This one is no exception . . . thoroughly engrossing
—— George R R MartinRiveting
—— John Kampfner , ObserverThought-provoking
—— Marcus Tanner , IndependentSuperb study
—— Nikolaus Wachsmann , Guardian[A] riveting account of how these ordinary Germans experienced and sustained the war
—— Nicholas Shakespeare , Daily TelegraphPlaces a flashlight inside the heads of “ordinary” Germans… Thought provoking
—— Maria Popova , Observerwell written and human account of a period of madness and how individuals sought to make sense of it
—— Simon Fowler , Who Do You Think You AreNicholas Stargardt spotlights the surprising twists and turns in the popular embrace of both the war and Nazi racial extremism. He explains—as few have—why the German people fought to the finish, whereas even the supposedly fanatical Japanese surrendered before an invasion of the homeland
—— Sheldon Garon, author of Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday LifeAmbitious and absorbing new book.
—— Richard J. Evans , London Review of Books[A] revelatory book.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayI enjoyed this book immensely…This book fills a vast gap in our knowledge of history and I am glad to have read it.
—— Reg Seward , NudgeThis is a compelling book…It’s a story of endurance – of place as well as people – and ultimately, it’s uplifting.
—— Psychology, 'Our Friends at BBC 4'A brilliant way of coming at the history of Berlin and Germany itself, which shows how people coped with the vicissitudes of the regime.
—— Country and Town HouseHarding has recorded the fate of the house and its inhabitants, from the Weimar republic until reunification. This is German history in microcosm ... as exciting as a good historical novel.
—— Die WeltAn inspirational read: highly recommended.
—— Western Morning NewsA genuinely remarkable work of biographical innovation.
—— Stuart Kelly , TLS, Books of the YearI’d like to reread Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey every Christmas for at least the next five years: I love being between its humane pages, which celebrate both scholarly companionship and deep feeling for the past
—— Alexandra Harris , GuardianRuth Scurr’s innovative take on biography has an immediacy that brings the 17th century alive
—— Penelope Lively , GuardianAnyone who has not read Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey can have a splendid time reading it this summer. Scurr has invented an autobiography the great biographer never wrote, using his notes, letters, observations – and the result is gripping
—— AS Byatt , GuardianA triumph, capturing the landscape and the history of the time, and Aubrey’s cadence.
—— Daily TelegraphA brilliantly readable portrait in diary form. Idiosyncratic, playful and intensely curious, it is the life story Aubrey himself might have written.
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailScurr knows her subject inside out.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayThe diligent Scurr has evidence to support everything… Learning about him is to learn more about his world than his modest personality, but Scurr helps us feel his pain at the iconoclasm and destruction wrought by the Puritans without resorting to overwrought language.
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianAcclaimed and ingeniously conceived semi-fictionalised autobiography… Scurr’s greatest achievement is to bring both Aubrey and his world alive in detail that feels simultaneously otherworldly and a mirror of our own age… It’s hard to think of a biographical work in recent years that has been so bold and so wholly successful.
—— Alexander Larman , Observer