The Napoleonic Quarterly

To be honest this episode is just as much in praise of The Lubber's Hole, a brilliant project working its way through the Aubrey-Maturin novels of the unparallelled Patrick O'Brian. It's my favourite and most-listened-to podcast, and so the opportunity to talk to one half of the Lubber's Hole, Ian Bradley, naturally descended into fan enthusings within minutes. I shall not apologise for this; not least because there were tokenistic nods to the naval position in 1805 and the way the novels approach the bigger fleet actions. Ian described O'Brian's thoroughly flexible approach to the chronology of the 1792-1815 period, how his characters discussed and remembered Trafalgar, and the nature of the source material he used to so effectively get that early 19th century 'voice' just right. And we compared notes about absurdly lengthy podcast projects into the bargain.
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Could Andrew Roberts' in-depth look at Napoleon's HR issues with those pesky marshals have prompted a bit of a rethink? With his new book Napoleon And His Marshals, Lord Roberts certainly has a fascinating new perspective moving things on from his 2014 biography Napoleon The Great. Whereas the emphasis had previously been on Napoleon's intellectual brilliance, administrative achievements and battlefield genius, this time we have a much more complicated, rounded, human picture. Those marshals were all-important, but they were treated rather roughly at times; and as Lord Roberts' delving into the latest correspondence shows, what he previously admired as effective compartmentalisation in the great Napoleonic brain now appears to be something closer to micromanagement of the most overdone kind.
It was a great pleasure to welcome Andrew on to the podcast, not least to put Charles' 'rat with great PR' jibe to him directly. The answer shows that, while there is more nuance in his latest look at the Napoleonic period, Andrew Roberts will defend Napoleon's achievements in power to the last.
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Bernie Campbell is joined by Alexander Mikaberidze and Rachel Blackman-Rogers to get their picks of the best books about one of the Napoleonic Wars' most consequential years. Covering all the angles of both the year's big campaign on the European continent, and the year's big campaign on the high seas: what book will change how you think about Trafalgar? Which are the best biographies of the main players? Are there any military histories missing from your bookshelf? One could get rather worked up about this sort of thing.
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1805. January... February... March... three months in which British telescopes looking out across the English Channel are trained on the north French coast... the Royal Navy waits in suspense for Frace's emperor to make his move... and the Italian republic is getting a new king - guess who. This is episode 52 of the Napoleonic Quarterly - covering three months of invasion tension.

[07:40] - headline developments
[12:20] - Ambrogio Caiani on Napoleon becoming King of Italy
[43:00] - Rachel Blackman-Rogers on naval strategy eyeing a cross-Channel invasion
[1:08:10] - John Gill on the Camp de Boulogne and the emerging Grande Armee

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With the relaunch period drawing to a close the time is now upon us, finally, when this podcast about the Napoleonic period actually gets to talk actually properly about the actual Napoleonic Wars. In one final build-up episode before episode 53 dives into Q1-1805, here's a last chance for Charles Esdaile and Alex Mikaberidze to consider the entirety of the 1805-15 period as a whole to answer the question: what should listeners expect will be different about what's to come, compared to what we've covered so far?

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