Waterloo 200th

If, like me, you didn't get across the Channel for the Waterloo celebrations... my friend and occasional wargaming opponent Tim did.

Check out his posts and photos - some superb uniforms....

Waterloo 200th

Just in case you've been living under the proverbial rock recently, today is, of course, the 200th anniversary of one of the most important and crucial battles for control of Europe, the battle of Waterloo.

I''m not exactly sure when I became aware of it as a historical event - I do know that my first real understanding of it came from being loaned and then given Pericoli's "1815: The Armies at Waterloo", which as well as being full of custom reference plates for the 1970 movie, contains a detailed and well-described account of the progress of the battle by Michael Glover. Which probably got me top marks on my last secondary school history exam before I (for various reasons I should cover in another blog post) gave it up.

The other book that is Waterloo to me is Henry Siborne's "The Waterloo Letters", for its first-hand accounts written after the battle.

It has always been one of my favourite periods of history, and I think the gorgeous plates in Pericoli's book, and the letters written to Siborne, may have quite a lot to do with it :D

Sean Bean's Waterloo

Perhaps by way of atonement for the somewhat suspect "Sharpe's Waterloo". Sean Bean is doing a two part documentary for the History Channel (UK) next Sunday from 10pm on the Battle of Waterloo.

Certainly worth recording, I suspect.