Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Can someone recommend any balanced British authors, especially books on Peninsular Campaign. Glazing through Roger Parkinson “The Peninsular Warâ€

Good question!

Digby-Smith can be placed at the Allied end of the spectrum. And his works lack accuracy. He tends to like to put out volumes of masses of information rather than get the details completely right.

Chandler tended to be pro-Napoleon where it regarded his ability to wage war. He was candid about his lack of diplomatic skill.

Not always easy to determine if an author is British or not without hunting on the internet. I tend to not worry so much about their nationality as to what they have to say.

John H. Gill is one of the best authors in English we have today. Robert Goetz is also a good author.

Is there a particular reason why you were looking for a British author? You have to rate them by strength of bias. Each one of them brings to their book a particular point of attack that eventually will come out. Its one of the biggest reasons why they wrote the book in the first place.

Colonel Bill Peters, 17th Dragoons, III Corps, French Army
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Swiss-Swedish Army CinC, Musket and Cannon Game Club - Come over and see what we are all about!

No particular reason for searching for an objective British author - it’s just that so far
whenever I came across them I found myself or someone else did that they have a strong pro-British view. Like reviewing books on 100 days campaign or war in Spain i found that it is either heavily pro-British or heavily pro-German (anti-British) (Peter Hoeshfrer) or nothing in between. So I just became interested if there any who do get objective. I guess American authors suppose to be more objective and less prone to national bias factor but on the other hand, naturally they are exposed more to English speaking sources.

also interesting to note that majority of today's books on Nwars circulating on the English speaking web are actually written by authors with Anglo-Saxon names despite that Nwars were fought by continental Europeans ignoring small British corps in Spain


Major Alexey Tartyshev
Moscow Grenadiers Regiment
2nd Grenadier Division
8th Infantry Corps
2nd Army of the West (NWC)

Well you have a real gamut with American authors too.

Scott Bowden is very pro-French for instance.

Chandler also admired Napoleon but I think is more middle of the road.

Accuracy and bias are two important ingredients I think. And you often will not find a good mix of either.

Bowden's works are detailed but do have errors. Same with Digby-Smith.

Goetz seems to be a more accurate and also with no bias. I hope that he writes many more books.

Not sure about Rory Muir.

Colonel Bill Peters, 17th Dragoons, III Corps, French Army
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Swiss-Swedish Army CinC, Musket and Cannon Game Club - Come over and see what we are all about!

Thank you for the info - will keep Goetz in mind.


Major Alexey Tartyshev
Moscow Grenadiers Regiment
2nd Grenadier Division
8th Infantry Corps
2nd Army of the West (NWC)

IMO, the best single volume history of the Peninsular War is David Gates, <u>The Spanish Ulcer</u> (W.W. Norton 1986). It is a balanced accounting of the entire conflict, written in magnificent prose [8D]. And, yes, Mr. Gates is British.

Regards,

Paco

<i>Maréchal</i> M. Francisco Palomo
<i>Prince d'Essling, Grande Duc d'Abrantes et
Comte de Marseille
Commandant - Division de Cavalerie de la Vieille Garde </i>