Witnessing Waterloo: 24 Hours, 48 Lives, A World Forever Changed

Description

[Previously published as 'Went The Day Well'] 'Of all the books marking the bicentenary Waterloo, this has to be the best' Spectator 'A book to die for' Evening Standard From Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisted author David Crane, this is a breathtaking portrait of the Britain that fought the battle of Waterloo. As Wellington's rain-sodden army retreated towards an obscure valley called Waterloo, the men and women of Britain were still going to the theatre and science lectures, working in the fields and the factories, reading and writing books and sermons, painting their pictures and sitting in front of Lord Elgin's marbles. David Crane's stunning freeze-frame of Britain on this day of momentous change shifts hour by hour between Britain and Belgium. The Britain that fought Waterloo - its radicals and patriots, artisans and aristocrats, prisoners and poets - appears through the smoke of battle and the mythology of Waterloo in this magnificent and original tracing of the endless, overlapping connections between people's lives.

About the Author

David Crane read history and English at Oxford University before becoming a lecturer at universities in the Netherlands, Japan, and Africa.He is the acclaimed biographer of Scott of the Antarctic and of Edward Trelawny, companion of Byron and Shelley. He also wroteThe Kindness Of Sisters, an account of the relationship between Byron's widow and his sister-in-law, who bore his child. His book,Empires Of The Dead, about Fabian Ware and the building of the First World War cemeteries, was shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.He lives in northwest Scotland.There is more than one author by the name David Crane on GoodreadsDavid Crane: Video Game DesignerDavid Crane: Screenplays