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Overview: Christopher Hibbert (born Arthur Raymond Hibbert) MC (5 March 1924 – 21 December 2008), was an English writer, historian and biographer. He has been called "a pearl of biographers" (New Statesman) and "probably the most widely-read popular historian of our time and undoubtedly one of the most prolific" (The Times). Hibbert was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including The Story of England, Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History
Corunna
‘Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,As his corse to the rampart we hurried.’—from ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’ by Charles WolfeOne of the best remembered poems in the English language has served to keep alive the memory of Sir John Moore and of his burial at Corunna on 17 January, 1809. The story of the battle which he fought on the previous day and of the short campaign and horrifying retreat which preceded it is, however, not so well known.The Battle of Corunna saved a British army from annihilation and resulted in the tragic death of one of England’s finest generals. Setting out from Lisbon in the autumn of 1808, Sir John Moore had marched his army into Spain against Napoleon and by a daring manoeuvre had thrown it across the line of French communications. But, having thus drawn off Napoleon’s army from Madrid, Moore found himself so outnumbered and with no hope of assistance from the ineffectual Spanish armies, that he decided to withdraw to the coast. After a 250-mile retreat across the mountains of Galicia under appalling weather conditions, with inadequate food supplies and the French hard on his heels, he eventually reached the port of Corunna. Here he turned and drew up his depleted forces to face Marshal Soult’s massive army; and, though mortally wounded in the ensuing battle, he lived long enough to learn that the French had been checked and that his own army would be able to embark in safety.In Corunna extensive use is made of the many eyewitness accounts which survive in the form of official despatches, histories, diaries, memoirs and letters. With the aid of these, Christopher Hibbert not only shows a remarkable understanding of John Moore and his fellow officers, of their conflicting characters and views, but also provides a horrifying picture of the hardships of this brief and bitter campaign.
George IV: The Rebel Who Would Be King
Hibbert delivers a superbly detailed picture of the life and times of George IV including his exorbitant spending on his homes, his clothes, and his women; his patronage of the arts; his "illegal" marriage to Catholic Mrs Fitzherbert, and lesser known facts such as his generous charity donations and his witty one-liners, including one he uttered when he met his bride-to-be (Caroline of Brunswick) for the first time: "Harris, I am not well, fetch me a brandy." George IV was the son of George III (who went insane and inspired "The Madness of King George") and was the founder of the prestigious King’s College in London
Napoleon: His Wives and Women
A masterly biography of Napoleon, concentrating on his private life, by the historian described by Stella Tillyard as ‘a master portraitist of great men’s private lives’ and by Amanda Foreman as ‘one of England’s greatest living historical writers’.
Modern history has produced one single myth on a heroic scale to rival those of Alexander and Caesar – that of Napoleon. The continuing fascination of this astonishingly gifted man is reflected in the number of books published each year on various aspects of the Napoleonic legend: some 250,000 volumes in all since Napoleon’s mysterious death in 1821.
What is still needed is now provided by Christopher Hibbert: an authoritative up-to-date account of Napoleon’s private life at all stages of his developing and extraordinary career, based on the fruits of modern research, his character, interests and tastes, his friendships, enmities and love affairs, his relations with the members of his remarkable family, the impressions he made on his contemporaries away from the council chamber and the battlefield, his personal life at war, in exile and as emperor in peacetime, the mystery surrounding his death: in short, the man revealed behind the soldier, statesman and legend.
The Borgias
The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy.
The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame – Lucrezia Borgia, his daughter, whose husband was famously murdered by her brother, and that brother, Cesare, who served as the model for Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. Notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder, the dynasty’s dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest position in Renaissance society forms a gripping tale.
Erudite, witty, and always insightful, Hibbert removes the layers of myth around the Borgia family and creates a portrait alive with his superb sense of character and place.
The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431-1519
The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame – his daughter Lucrezia and her brother Cesare, who murdered Lucrezia’s husband and served as the model for Machiavelli’s The Prince.The Borgias were notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder. The story of the family’s dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to the highest position in Italian society is an absorbing tale.
Waterloo: Wellington’s Victory and Napoleon’s Last Campaign
THE GREATEST OF BATTLES The defining military engagement of the nineteenth century. The epic battle that forever ended one man’s dreams of a European empire unified under his rule.
THE GREATEST OF RIVALS This epoch-defining conflict would ultimately be remembered for the showdown between two of history’s most legendary commanders: the Duke of Wellington, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT Divided into three parts, Christopher Hibbert masterfully depicts first Napoleon and his rise to power, then a portrait of Wellington and the allied armies, and lastly the steps leading up to and the battle itself, the final clash on the fields of Waterloo.
A gripping, succinct and panoramic survey of this legendary battle, the history surrounding the conflict, and the personalities that defined both the battle itself, and a generation.
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