Author:Paul O'Keeffe
After midnight, 19 June 1815...
On the battlefield more than 50,000 men and 7,000 horses lie dead and wounded; the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armée struggles in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian lancers; and Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted and stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication and captivity.
In the days, weeks and months that followed, news of the battle shaped the consciousness of an age. Drawing on a multiplicity of contemporary voices and viewpoints, Paul O’Keeffe brings into focus as never before the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield, of conquest and defeat, of celebration and riot.
If you buy one book to mark this Waterloo anniversary, buy this one
—— Gerard DeGroot , The TimesIt is all here – and all told with the same verve, eye for anecdote and command of the material. This is a very good book, and a model of how narrative history should be written... anybody remotely interested in the battle should read
—— The SpectatorInvigorating and compelling
—— Daily TelegraphI was gripped by the wealth of detail and humanity in the book... This is how the tales of battles should be told, whatever the time, place or outcome
—— Emily Mayhew, author of WoundedA grim story – but well worth the telling
—— Saul David , Evening StandardWhat is truly gripping is the human horror, and the realization that what counts in war is not glory or patriotism, but victory, supremacy and the uncompromising need to prevail
—— Roger Lewis , Daily MailOriginal and fascinating… If you buy one book to mark [the] anniversary [of Waterloo], buy this one
—— Washington PostO’Keeffe describes these fraught, uncertain days with skill and a touch for ground-level detail... [He] has told in vivid colors a story that is often passed over in most narratives, but that is alive with drama and human tragedy
—— New York TimesO’Keeffe has done a magnificent job tying up loose ends and telling a story that needed to be told
—— Good Book GuideO’Keeffe brings an unjaundiced eye to what has been a well-told tale
—— Connexion[The book] makes a lasting impression.
—— Illtyd Harrington , Camden New JournalAuthoritative, wide-ranging and thoroughly readable.
—— Adrian Weale , Literary ReviewThe Good War…can feel one step away from the action but is no less compelling or valuable. His is a chronology of a war of our time; it holds one’s attention and he has done his research.
—— Lyse Doucet , New Statesmana wholly readable and utterly persuasive attempt to get us to look at the Holocaust in a different light
—— Nick Fraser , Observerthis is a deeply insightful and original treatment and, as the Holocaust drifts slowly but surely from living memory and into history, a warning against future complacency
—— John Owen , History TodaySnyder excels in repositioning the Holocaust in a global context
—— Joanna Bourke , New StatesmanTimothy Synder reorientates our understanding of the ideological structures and political circumstances that made the Nazis’ genocidal programme possible
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To his recalibration of the conventional topography and chronology of the Holocaust, Snyder adds a novel interpretation of Hitler’s worldview and of the place of Jews in it
—— Jonathan Derbyshire , ProspectSnyder delivers what is surely the best and most unsparing analysis of eastern European collaborationism now available.
—— Richard J Evans , GuardianAs our world fragments and dissolves into chaos, Snyder offers a chilling lesson about how easy it is for people to slip into evil and bloodlust.
—— Catholic Heralda book of the greatest importance… written with searing intellectual honesty.
—— Anthony Beevor , Sunday TimesSnyder's extraordinary book may be about events more than seventy years ago, but its lessons about human nature are as relevant now as then
—— Rebecca Tinsley , Independent Catholic NewsDisturbing but utterly compelling... The how’s and whys of what happened have never been better explained.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayHighly praised, and indeed it is a worthy contribution to the subject.
—— Ruth Ginarlis , NudgeHarding 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