War / Napoleon / Wellington
Introduced by Andrew Roberts
With a Preface by Ruth Sessions
With a Preface by Ruth Sessions
/ SYNOPSIS
A true story of war, love and loss
Magdalene and William de Lancey were married after a whirlwind romance just months before the cataclysmic battle of Waterloo. William, one of the first professional officers in the British army, was immediately called by the Duke of Wellington to serve as his Chief-of-Staff – among his duties was to choose the exact spot on which the battle would be fought.
When hostilities erupted Magdalene fled to Antwerp for safety, where she hid in her room in a vain attempt to escape the sound of the guns. Late in the afternoon while talking with Wellington, de Lancey was hit in the back by a canon ball. While he was left for dead on the battle field, Magdalene was told of his fate. But when she arrived at Waterloo to retrieve his body she found him alive. Magdalene de Lancey’s is a real life Amelia from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Her honest and heart rending account of her struggle to nurse her husband back to health was originally written as a letter to her brother. It is for this reason that it has a striking immediacy and any woman who has ever nursed the man she loves will empathise with Magdalene fears, hopes and sorrow. She was widowed ten days after the battle.
She wrote this heart-rending account of her experiences in 1815. It lay unpublished for more than eighty years. This new edition has an introduction by the historian Andrew Roberts, author of Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Gamble (2005) and a preface by Magdalene’s great-great-great-great niece Ruth Full-Sessions
Magdalene and William de Lancey were married after a whirlwind romance just months before the cataclysmic battle of Waterloo. William, one of the first professional officers in the British army, was immediately called by the Duke of Wellington to serve as his Chief-of-Staff – among his duties was to choose the exact spot on which the battle would be fought.
When hostilities erupted Magdalene fled to Antwerp for safety, where she hid in her room in a vain attempt to escape the sound of the guns. Late in the afternoon while talking with Wellington, de Lancey was hit in the back by a canon ball. While he was left for dead on the battle field, Magdalene was told of his fate. But when she arrived at Waterloo to retrieve his body she found him alive. Magdalene de Lancey’s is a real life Amelia from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Her honest and heart rending account of her struggle to nurse her husband back to health was originally written as a letter to her brother. It is for this reason that it has a striking immediacy and any woman who has ever nursed the man she loves will empathise with Magdalene fears, hopes and sorrow. She was widowed ten days after the battle.
She wrote this heart-rending account of her experiences in 1815. It lay unpublished for more than eighty years. This new edition has an introduction by the historian Andrew Roberts, author of Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Gamble (2005) and a preface by Magdalene’s great-great-great-great niece Ruth Full-Sessions
/ CHARITY
Part of the proceeds of A Week At Waterloo go to the Army Families Federation which is the independent voice of Army families and works hard to improve the quality of life for Army families around the world.
/ PRESS REVIEWS
“If I live for fifty years, I shall dream of it every now and then, from this hour to the day of my death, with the most frightful reality.” Charles Dickens
• Unseen for 100 years, the sad love story of a wife and the final days with her husband who died at Waterloo - Daily Mail
• Waterloo Day: 'Even the horses were screaming' - Daily Telegraph
-------------------------------------
Catalogue Details
Publication Date: June 2008
ISBN: 978-0-955729-8-2
Small Paperback
Price: £7.99
100pp. 10x16.5mm
Rights: World
• Unseen for 100 years, the sad love story of a wife and the final days with her husband who died at Waterloo - Daily Mail
• Waterloo Day: 'Even the horses were screaming' - Daily Telegraph
-------------------------------------
Catalogue Details
Publication Date: June 2008
ISBN: 978-0-955729-8-2
Small Paperback
Price: £7.99
100pp. 10x16.5mm
Rights: World
Reportage Press is a new publishing house specialising in books on foreign affairs or set in foreign countries; non-fiction, fiction, essays, travel books, old travel memoirs, or just books written from a stranger’s view.
Daniela Norris and Shireen Anabtawi in discussion - October 12th, London Jewish Cultural Centre
More...
