Went the Day Well?: Witnessing Waterloo [Paperback]

In these pages, acclaimed historian David Crane gives us an astonishing, intimate snapshot of the people and places surrounding the battle that changed the course of world history. Switching perspectives between Britain and Belgium, prison and palace, poet and pauper, husband and wife,Went the Day Well? offers a highly original view of Waterloo, showing how the battle was not only a military landmark, but also a cultural watershed that drew the line between the rural, reactionary age of the past and the urban, innovative era to come. Lyrically rendered in Crane’s signature prose style, this essential account freeze-frames the ordinary men and women of 1815 who went about their business, attended lectures, worked in fields and factories—all on the cusp of a new, unforeseeable age.

“A finely balanced narrative that flits seamlessly between the battlefield and the British home front.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Elegantly written. . . . An impressive discussion of the battle’s significance in modern British history.” —Financial Times

“A rich feast of a book: dramatic, poignant, funny, gruesome and tragic by turns.” —The Spectator

“A delightful chronicle. . . . Readers will marvel. . . . A historical tour de force—a fascinating panorama of Great Britain during the summer of Waterloo.” —Kirkus Reviews(starred)David Crane read history and English at Oxford University before becoming a lecturer at universities in Holland, Japan and Africa. His books include Went the Day Well?, Scott of the Antarctic, Empires of the Dead, and The Kindness of Sisters. He lives in northwest Scotland.Chapter 1

The Tiger Is Out

‘The pilot who is carrying us into Liverpool, told us of Bonaparte’s return to Paris … l£§