Afternoon Men

Anthony Powell's first, highly acclaimed novel maps the decline and fall of a characteristically seedy section of London society, and confirms the author's reputation as one of the great satirists of the twentieth century.

A social comedy about "a company of giddyheads" and their wanderings in London's Bohemia.

The true story, told minute by minute, of the soldiers who defeated Napoleon - from Brendan Simms, acclaimed author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy Europe had been at war for over twenty years. After a short respite in exile, Napoleon had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent. At the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe. Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports. Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history.

Reproduction of the original: Uncle Sam’s Boys in the Ranks by H. Irving Hancock