Napoleon & St Helena

‘… a fascinating romp through Napoleonic history.’
The New York Times Book Review

‘Quirky and entertaining … Willms is a wry, entertaining commentator … it’s a good story, and Willms tells it well.’
The Guardian

Isolated in the vastness of the South Atlantic, the fortress-like island of St Helena was important for centuries only as a victualling station for ships of the British East India Company on their long voyafes to and from India via the Cape of Good Hope.

Napoleonic historian Johannes Willms visits this strange colonial survivor to unearth both the past and the present, dispelling the myths and legends Bonaparte himself helped to create and cutting to the truth of what life for the exiled Emperor was really like during his incarceration.

Wide-ranging in its political and historical scope, Willms’ account remains a personal and human reaction to his experiences on the Island of Exile.

JOHANNES WILLMS is a historian and journalist. He has worked as the culture correspondent in Paris for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and is the author of several books on Napoleon.