Book
Four Days in June
First published 2006
From 15 to 18 June 1815, Napoleon’s return to power brings the French, Anglo-allied and Prussian armies together in the Waterloo campaign. The novel follows five real participants at different levels of command: Wellington’s quartermaster-general William Howe de Lancey, Guards officer James Macdonnell, Prussian commander Hans von Zieten, Marshal Michel Ney and Napoleon himself.
Their separate viewpoints move through staff work, the defence of Hougoumont, the difficult coordination of the Prussian advance and the pressures inside the French command. Wellington remains the central opponent around whom many of their decisions turn, but the novel’s interest lies in showing how a famous outcome emerged from uncertainty, incomplete information, exhaustion and choices made before anyone on the field knew which army would survive the day.
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