Description

Weidenfeld and Nicolson [Published Date: 1988]. Hardcover, 386 pp. First UK edition. Very good in very good dust jacket. Black cloth covered boards with silver lettering on spine. Light scuffing to edges of covers. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and light creasing along edges. light overall scuffing and soiling to jacket as well. NOT price clipped. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. With 24 pages of full-colour and half-tone photographs plus 4 maps. [From front jacket flap] This enthralling and authoritative biography - published to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie - throws new light on the life and character of this legendary figure. His hitherto little-known love affair with his cousin Louise de Montbazon, his adventures in France and Italy, his valiant attempts to restore his family to the British throne, and the bloody battles of the 1745 Rising, which culminated at Culloden, are all sharply and vividly portrayed. Himself a Highlander, former soldier, and diplomat, Sir Fitzroy Maclean's imagination was fired some twenty-five years ago by the discovery late one night in an old deed-box of a unique relic directly linking his family with the Prince and the Rising. During two decades of research into contemporary accounts, he followed in the Prince's footsteps from Frascati to the Isle of Eriskay, from Glen Corrodale to Essex Street in London and the Place des Vosges in Paris. In recounting the dramatic story of the Prince's daring exploits, Sir Fitzroy's first-hand experiences of guerilla warfare and missions in enemy-occupied territory have enabled him to capture the spirit of these desperate times as few authors could. It is this, together with his skilful use of recently discovered material and his undoubted narrative gift, which gives this latest book by the author of Eastern Approaches an immediacy and momentum all of its own.