Author: Balen, Malcolm
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2006
ISBN: 0007160305
Binding: Soft Cover
Book Condition: As New
Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Description:
New book, 288 pages. More than 50 thousand died or were wounded on the single bloody day of the battle of Waterloo. This was killing on the scale of World War One, and yet the glory of the British victory soon came to overshadow any notion of its gore. In this electrifying account of the day itself, Malcolm Balen combines extraordinary first-hand account of the battle with the story of William Siborne, a model-maker who, in the wake of the battle, wanted to leave posterity a perfect and accurate representation of the crucial moment in the battle. The question was: who had won the day? Was it Wellington's forces of Blucher's Prussians, or a combination of the two? The accounts Siborne used to piece the muddy truth together read as if Waterloo had been fought yesterday. But the accuracy he relentlessly pursued came up against the desire of the British establishment and the Duke of Wellington to control the narrative of the day. In this fascinating and refreshing account, Malcolm Balen tells how two battles were fought: for Europe's future, and for the control of history.