Hey Bill check this out. Wow its a bit sad how these people bicker. In my opinion this is one of the best works on the period. I judge that from practical study as oppossed to anything scholarly
From the author;
'I am the author. I wish to answer the sustained attacks on my books over the last fifteen years by Micheal Le Vean et als. This man and his friends have spent years attacking my books and defaming me, they do so because I would not take part in and opposed their undemocratic coup d'etat to oust Robert Snibbe as president of the Napoleonic Society of America in 1994.
Le Vean evens quotes the late Col. Elting to discredit me putting words into his mouth, which cannot now be disputed.
Their friend and colleague Peter Hofshroer and his `partner' David Hollins also try to denigrate my work, in Hofshroer's case my book came out first and stole his thunder vis a vis the Prussians , Dutch-Belgian and Germans true role in the Campaign.I have been severely disabled for the last thirty years due to a spinal injury and now a severe heart and lung condition from being housebound and it's been too traumatic for me to counter their lies until now.
I cannot, however, continue to accept this venomous spite from these persons without answering them as it's embarrassing to my family. Many people have faulted my sources, (quite rightly) and I have been too unwell to answer but I do so now.
I was approached by Arms and Armour press in 1991 on the recommendation of two historians that I had corresponded with for many years. I was commissioned to write a book about the fall of Napoleon and Waterloo.
This I did.
However, in 1993, seven weeks before my manuscript was due to be handed in, I had a panicked editor on my doorstep who said that he needed a book on Waterloo and to scrap "the politics"! Being a first time author I was coerced in to starting my manuscript again from scratch, either that or they said they would not publish it.
In six weeks I wrote New Perspectives from start to finish, culling it from the original work; Writing, assembling photographs and maps and proof reading this "new work in just six weeks was huge undertaking and one I have never been happy with.
It meant that many of my citations were either copied wrongly or numbered incorrectly. I was not even allowed a bibliography on the grounds of cost so I tried to cite as many works in the footnotes as possible.
The bibliography appeared in my other book "The Fall of Napoleon" published a few weeks later. This was the first part of my original book, the second part (unpublished) was the machinations leading to Napoleon's return from Elba and King Murat's campaign against Austria in 1815; Waterloo and St.Helena (unpublished) being the last part.
Thirty years work cut up and badly produced. Such is the power of the publisher. I also cringed at what the PR said on the jacket, but there again I had no say. Having been disabled for over three decades, I have spent my enforced isolation in researching Napoleonic archives(cited in "The Fall of Napoleon") and obtaining international accounts of the period, mainly by correspondence. Due to my injuries, I have been able to devote all my time to studying rather than being a `part-time' author/researcher with a full-time occupation. After a most vitriolic personal attack by the above named critics, I suffered a severe heart attack in 1994 and withdrew from writing anymore books as I am not well enough to fight back against such personal vindictiveness that follows a publication and the game did not seem to be worth the candle.
I also did not feel like answering their personal libels and slanders as to my private life as this is an old trick to make me look guilty by having perpetually to justify myself and therefore look at fault by doing so.
Finally, as to my veracity, I was made a Fellow of the International Napoleon Society in 1996 and I was awarded its highest award The Legion of Merit in 2001, for my lifetime services to Napoleonic history.
If anyone is in doubt as to the veracity of this, they need only contact the INS or go to their website
http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/officers.htm. May I take this opportunity to thank all those readers who have judged my books on their merit and have not been swayed by all the venom generated against me.'
NWC
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