Good day Mr. Cornwell

Just finished after only a few days reading “Waterloo”, which I very much enjoyed. Just two things:

In the first paragraph of the epilog you write, that Napoleon was buried “in a beautiful valley with view of the Atlantic” (I read the German version, so original wording will be a bit different probably). I have been on St. Helena a few times and the (now empty) tomb is located in a dip in the small Sane valley. Even considering that in 1821 the vegetation was not as dense as it is now, there is no view of the Atlantic. It is a romantic thought though ;-).

I’m not sure who is correct on this detail, also in the epilog, third paragraph. There it is stated that Maréchal Ney was executed wearing his uniform. According to the website senate.fr he wore civil cloth: “Le maréchal est vêtu d’une redingote bleue, d’un gilet noir, d’une culotte courte et de bas de soie noire, et ne porte aucune décoration : il n’est donc pas nécessaire de le faire dégrader.” A painting of the execution dated 1868 and now at the Sheffield Museum also shows him in civil cloth.

But once again, I very much enjoyed reading the book about the battle of Waterloo as told by you. Thank you for this reading pleasure.

Best regards

Urs Steiner, Switzerland