Waterloo: The Aftermath

A dramatic and groundbreaking retelling of what happened after one of modern history's pivotal battles -- taking us from the horrors of the battlefield to the drawing rooms of London and Paris, from Napoleon's retreat and surrender to British triumph and celebration.
     After midnight on 19 June 1815:

   • upwards of 50,000 men and 7,000 horses lay dead and wounded on the battlefield of Waterloo. 

   • the Duke of Wellington, caked in the previous day's dust and sweat, began writing the dispatch that would send his country into mourning and jubilation. 

   • the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armée was struggling in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian dragoons. 

   • Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted and stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication and the end of his Empire.
During the hours, days, weeks and months that followed:

   • the battlefield would be looted, cleared of its wounded, its dead buried or burned, its ground and ruins overrun by tourists. 

   • news of the battle would spread, by dispatch rider, carriage, packet ship and laurel-decked mail coach, shaping and defining the consciousness of an Age. 

   • the victorious British and Prussian armies would invade France, occupy Paris, and disperse the contents of the Louvre. 

   • as France's enemies closed in and his ministers manoeuvred to be rid of him, Napoleon saw all avenues closed except surrender, exile and captivity.

In this dramatic and ground-breaking account of the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo, Paul O'Keeffe employs a multiplicity of contemporary sources and viewpoints to create a reading experience that brings the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield, of conquest and defeat, of celebration and riot, into focus as never before.

PAUL O'KEEFFE's acclaimed books include biographies of Wyndham Lewis (Some Sort of Genius, 2000) and Benjamin Robert Haydon (A Genius for Failure, 2009). He lives in Liverpool.