18th June: The Battle of Waterloo

Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the one that inspired the Abba song. How much do you know about this epic battle?

1. The battle was fought near Waterloo in present-day Belgium (although at the time of the battle it was part of the Netherlands). The battlefield is about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) south of Brussels. Although it was about 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) from the town of Waterloo, it ended up being called the Battle of Waterloo because Wellington liked to name battles after the place he’d spent the previous night.
2. The Prussians called the battle ‘La Belle Alliance’, after the inn of the same name at the centre of Napoleon’s line. The French called it ‘Mont St Jean’ after the ridge that marked Wellington’s line.
3. Why did it happen? Because other European countries refused to recognise Napoleon as Emperor of France. The UK, Holland, Prussia, Hanover, Nassau and Brunswick were gathering armies to invade France. Napoleon decided to pre-empt this and attack the Seventh Coalition before they could organise their invasion.
4. Before the battle, Wellington got up very early and wrote letters before going out on the field to supervise deployment of his forces. Napoleon, on the other hand ate a leisurely breakfast while slagging Wellington off. "Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast", he said to one of his advisers. It's possible he didn't actually believe this, but said it to boost the morale of his troops.
5. No-one knows for sure what time the battle started. Wellington recorded in his dispatches that at "about ten o'clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont". Other sources state that the attack began around 11:30.
6. By the end of that day, about 30,000 men had lost their lives with many more wounded or missing.
7. The battle may have been lost because of a misread word. Marshal Grouchy failed to bring vital reinforcements to Napoleon’s assistance because he misread one word in the scribbled dispatch sent from the field. The Chief of Staff had written ‘The battle is begun (engagée)’, but Grouchy thought it said ‘The battle is won (gagné)’ so he didn't bother sending any troops.
8. The Coalition captured Napoleon's carriage and found inside it diamonds left behind in the rush to escape. These became part of King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia's crown jewels. They also found printed proclamations announcing Napoleon's victory, addressed to the people of Belgium and post-dated June 17 1815. He'd also promised his troops unlimited plunder when they occupied the Belgian capital.
9. The morning after, local peasants and surviving soldiers swarmed over the battlefield, looting. Some of the soldiers had started looting while the battle was still going on. They collected all sorts of souvenirs and sold them on - badges, hats and weapons. The most valuable and also the most gruesome was teeth from corpses. They would be removed using hammers and chisels and sold on to make dentures for wealthy people. For a long time, dentures were known as "Waterloo teeth". Wellington himself had a set eventually but whether his came from the dead of the battle of Waterloo or some other battle, is unknown.
10. Today, there is a monument on the site, an artificial conical hill with a 28 tonnes (31 tons), 4.45 m (14.6 ft) high and 4.5 m (14.8 ft) long statue of a lion on top. There is a legend that says that the lion was cast from brass melted down from cannons abandoned by the French on the battlefield.

My books are available now. See below for descriptions and links:

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Where you can use the "Look Inside" function and read the first few pages for free!)

Glastonbury Swan

Every few weeks, there is a mysterious death in Glastonbury. They seem completely unrelated - an apparent suicide, a hit and run, a drug overdose, a magic act which goes horribly wrong - but is that what the killer wants people to think?

The police are certainly convinced - but one of the victims is communicating to medium Tabitha Drake that the deaths are linked.

Who is killing all these people and why? 

This is what Tabitha has to figure out - before it is too late to save someone very dear to her.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

Jigsaw

The first ten short stories from my writing blog. Within these covers you will find murder, mayhem, ghosts, romance, dungeons and dragons and alien vampire bunnies.

You can, of course, read all these stories and more on the blog for free by following the link above, and you're welcome to do that, but if you find you'd like to read them over and over without looking at a screen, or you know your friend who hates technology would absolutely love them, the book is available.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon 

E-book Amazon Kindle