MrsJ and I spent the weekend at sister-in-laws near Peterborough to allow the ladies to have a theatre trip to London. I took the opportunity to visit the workshop cum retail outlet of Deans Marine model boat kit makers, and spent some enjoyable time drooling over the models in the workshop (some beautiful warships, from pre-dreadnoughts to modern frigates) all in large scales, and a little glimpse of a couple of forthcoming models (a German 'flat-iron' style gunboat and a British monitor) both probably wargame size, as I think they were 1/96 scale - but likely to be too expensive for that use. Having seduced myself into buying a kit, I went back via Oundle and browsed the bookshop. There I found about two shelves of books on Waterloo, and spotted this one
At first glance, another book on the battle, but a quick look inside shows it is a different take on the day. As well as covering the well known details of the fight it has alternate chapters which give an overview on what was happening in England at the time, from a society scandal through mentions of Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron, and William Wilberforce down to the lower rungs of society, where a thief tries to fence some stolen silver and is 'done over' by the chap he takes it too. Only dipped at the moment, but I will enjoy the full read.
No comments:
Post a Comment