In my studies to put together a scenario for my forthcoming Battle of Orthez, I was recommended to have a look at a book by Major-General FC Beatson, published in 1925.
Now, as it happens, this book was one of a number of old hardbound volumes I once had, all previously the property of the library at Wellington School. They were pretty dirty, and they smelled of cigarette smoke and mildew and were generally unappetising. There came a time when I had to unload a lot of books - the collection had got out of hand, partly as a result of my working for a while just around the corner from the legendary MacNaughton's Book Shop, in Leith Walk, Edinburgh. The Beatson books didn't look particularly inspiring, and they went out in the clearance.
Well, I found that some of Beatson's back catalogue is now available on Kindle, so I bought this one for about £4.
You know what? - it's bloody good. It is deliberately aimed at officer trainees, and Beatson's rather eccentric use of punctuation takes a little getting used to, but it contains just the sort of nuts and bolts stuff about the organisation and narrative of a campaign that I thrive on, though it is definitely a product of its time and would probably chase most sensible readers away very quickly.
There is excellent material on routing the supply trains as the army moved north into France, and a lot of detail on the political difficulties caused by the confrontation between British officials and the Spanish Cortes. Being a Kindle edition, of course, the photos and maps have disappeared, but I can cover for that.
It seems that Naval & Military stock a complete Beatson trilogy of Wellington's 1814 adventures, so you can still get them. I'm sure I had another volume, on Waterloo, but my personal legacy of Wellington School's military section included Fuller and a few others, so I may be mistaken about this.
With all due apologies to the Major-General for not being sufficiently respectful last time round, I am enjoying my new Kindle book.
Are these the kind of books you would hang onto and reread? If not, why not just see if you can order them up via the public library system? That's what I tend to do with most things these days .
ReplyDeleteThat's a sound strategy, but the only place I'd get books of this type to borrow would be Edinburgh, and I'd have to be a resident. I could certainly get to read them at the National Library of Scotland, also in Edinburgh, but it's 40 miles away, and the logistics are expensive. At £4 for a Kindle it's probably a good deal, though obviously for £4 they don't include proof-reading, so you have to be on your toes when it states that Wellington did something on the "nth of January" - seems like security taken to a ridiculous level. Oh yes - I lied about the illustrations - my ancient Kindle machine shows me some black and white photos about 1" across, which I can't enlarge. They could be anything - maybe they are.
DeleteIt's so long that I've actually forgotten about public libraries. There used to be (maybe there still is) a library here in North Berwick, but it was always full of kids being told improving stories at the weekends, or classes of elderly people failing to learn about That Internet. I can't remember if they could actually get you books.
It's great to get this summary and recommendation Tony, thank you. I'll have to add them to the list.
ReplyDeleteJust when I thought I had sufficient books on the Napoleonic era too...
Regards, James
It's a bit of a niche market, maybe, but you'll never get through your Sandhurst exams without it.
DeleteGood recommendation, I have stacks of Napoleonic books but don't really wargame the period, a retirement project maybe!
ReplyDeleteI found this Kindle book useful, because there isn't a huge range of options. Oman is excellent, as ever. The biggest disappointment (for me, like) was Ian C Robertson's "Wellington Invades France" (2003), which contains whole tracts of unedited Oman, just pasted in. The bibliography reveals very few non-British sources, though he gets bonus points for visiting Girod de l'Ain's "Vie Militaire du Général Foy", or at least mentioning it. He also seems to have foot-slogged around the area, but his few original contributions seem to be restricted to debate about the correct spelling of some of the place names. If this seems like an unfair assessment of Mr Robertson's book then, of course, I apologise, but just reading Oman Vol.VII at first hand, and (maybe) Beatson, would be a more satisfactory alternative.
DeleteLooking forward to the game report, Tony! By coincidence the Naval and Military Press have an offer of 25% off books on the Napoleonic period right now - you might get a hardcopy of your book at a low price..
ReplyDeleteI must check that out - thanks David.
DeleteI picked up the Beatson volumes a couple of years ago and confess I find them a bit disappointing, especially their very poor maps. Oman and Fortescue seem much more useful but these things are obviously a matter of personal taste. The OOBs in the back of Oman are also very handy. These days the Omans and Fortescue volumes can easily be downloaded as PDFs from archive.org, as they are well out of copyright now. So can many of the French sources for the period like Foy etc.! How well off we now are for easily accessible material; how my teenage self would have been envious! ;-)
ReplyDeleteLook forward to the game report.
Cheers,
David.
From recollection, I think the poor maps was one reason why the smelly hardbacks had to go. The Kindle version gives no maps at all, so that's one problem solved! I have never thought the Beatson book was a fine piece of historical writing, but it does give some information that I have not seen elsewhere. I don't have Fortescue, but get a great deal of use and pleasure from my set of Oman!
Delete:-) Yes, I agree about Oman; I am incredibly keen on my set. Can't beat having the actual books; I was delighted back in 1999 to find most of them in a remaindered bookshop in Oxford... I have only the PDFs of Fortescue (apart from one volume of the Leonaur reprints, which are ludicrously expensive). If you would like it, the PDF of the volume of Fortescue covering Orthez etc. can be found here: https://archive.org/details/historyofbritish09fortuoft
DeleteCheers,
David.
David - thanks very much for this - appreciated!
DeleteMy pleasure. :-) There's a whole French website on the battle of Orthez; this is the map page which has the Fortescue map of the battle (not terribly high quality but OK; the online PDF version of the Fortescue map book including Orthez is very poor quality): https://www.orthez-1814.org/cartes.htm
DeleteNaval and Military Press have volumes covering all the maps of Oman and Fortescue; I have the Oman already and have just bought the Fortescue and am waiting for it to arrive.
Cheers,
David.
Sounds very interesting?
ReplyDelete