The Duke : Paperback – 1 July 1997

As a military history lover this book is a great read.

Most people know a bit about the Duke - maybe India, certainly Waterloo - but there's so much more. His early life in Ireland, the army service before & during the Peninsula War, the diplomatic era leading up to Waterloo, and then a further 30 years of politics & service to the Crown. Truly a great man.But I feel that England surely needs its heroes now like never before, when so much of our great history is not taught in schools or ignored as irrelevant. Wellington's numerically inferior army thrashed the might of France on numerous occasions, how is that irrelevant? Or is that something else dictated by Brussels? They were very grateful at the time.The book is easy to read & quite amusing in places, but with only schoolgirl French learned some 50 years ago I found the many French paragraphs (without translation) a bit annoying - hence only 4 stars.

excelent

A brisk, charming, canter through what is a huge career. Written in the 1930's and in style heavily influenced by Lytton Strachey. If you want to know about Wellington and quail at the prospect of two weighty volumes with extensive index then this is the biography for you. The salient facts are set out clearly, the 30's style of writing might be off putting, but I found the light tone a relief. Having read both of the two volume works (Elizabeth Longford, brilliant and Rory Muir, exhaustive) I can say he Mr Guedella has edited his sources down very well.