Napoleon

"One of the year's best biographies... A compelling portrait of one of history's greatest figures" -- Catherine Lockerbie Scotsman "McLynn writes with considerable verve: his pithy characterisations of Napoleon's subordinates, the alternating chapters of narrative and analysis, the dramatic set-pieces...all these combine to make his biography pleasurable and highly instructive to read" -- Brendan Simms Evening Standard "McLynn offers an admirably clear narrative, neither adulatory nor debunking. He acknowledges and displays the extraordinary tale and does not hide the pettiness" -- Alan Massie Daily Telegraph "A robust, well-paced biography which pans confidently from the seventeen-year-old child educated by Jesuits to the ruins of the imperial grandeur and death by slow arsenic poisoning on a bleak St Helena" -- Colin Cardwell Scotland on Sunday