Of the hundreds of other incidents, such as the carving of Christ on the cross which, apart from his feet, survived the fire, the bloody water and the obliging pigeons, that occurred at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, I have selected a few, sometimes with a little licence, that fitted my story.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For excellent histories and accounts of this period, the humble novelist is spoilt for choice. I would mention, in particular, Alessandro Barbero’s The Battle, Mike Robinson’s The Battle of Quatre Bras 1815, and Hougoumont by Julian Paget and Derek Saunders. All these I found invaluable, as were Gareth Glover’s comprehensive Waterloo Archive series, Private Matthew Clay’s personal account of the battles, first published in 1853, and Sergeant Major Cotton’s A Voice from Waterloo, published in 1849.
My grateful thanks are also due to:
Rhydian Vaughan of Battlefield Tours, www.battlefieldtours.co.uk, who expertly guided us around the battlefields and acted as unofficial researcher and corrector of errors.
Colonel Simon Vandeleur, Regimental Adjutant Coldstream Guards at Wellington Barracks, for kindly allowing me access to the regimental archives.
Robert Cazenove, Regimental Archivist, Coldstream Guards for his help with uniforms, musical instruments and proper forms of address.
My agent David Headley, of DHH Literary Agents, for his encouragement and support and Susie Dunlop of Allison & Busby for hers.
And to all others who were kind enough to read my drafts and offer advice.
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About the Author
ANDREW SWANSTON read a little law and a lot of sport at Cambridge University, and held various positions in the book trade, including being a director of Waterstone & Co, and chairman of Methven’s plc, before turning to writing. Inspired by a lifelong interest in seventeenth century history, his ‘Thomas Hill’ novels are set during the English Civil Wars and the early period of the Restoration. He lives with his wife in Surrey, near to their three children and two grandchildren. His interests include golf, gardening, and drawing.
By Andrew Swanston
Waterloo
The Bravest Man
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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London W1T 6DW
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First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2015.
This ebook edition published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2015.
Copyright © 2015 by ANDREW SWANSTON
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-7490-1955-6
Waterloo Page 22