Owen Heathcote Boeken

This is a biographical dictionary of the two flag officers and captains of 27 battleships, four frigates and two minor combatant vessels that were present under Nelson's command at the historic battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. Each officer's family background and naval career will be covered and his and his ship's role in the Battle analyzed. In addition there will be a general introduction.

Classic study of the British Army in India Detailed account of the relationships of the army at home and on the subcontinent Insight into the evolution of the British Indian Army from the time of the East India Company to Independence

Violence is one of the main themes in the novels of Honoré de Balzac. Executions, murders, savagery and death accompany the conspiracies and the turbulence that characterise his post-Revolutionary times, from the Terror to the Napoleonic campaigns and then to the upheavals of 1830 and 1848. Despite the importance of violence in Balzac, this is the first book-length study of the topic. The book begins by tracing the links between violence and Balzac’s approach to the novel, not merely in terms of violent content, but, equally importantly, in terms of the form associated with that content. Form and content combine to perpetuate and naturalise violence and suffering. After charting examples of this combination in one of Balzac’s earliest fictions, the book moves on to the links between violence and history (Catherine de Médicis; the Terror), between violence and place (from his native Touraine to sickness in Paris), and between violence and gender/sexuality. It also examines the representation of violence in the form of spoken or written death. Throughout the analysis, the book asks the following question: do Balzac’s novels reinforce or counteract the literary text’s apparent love-affair with violence?

Wellington's achievements in the Peninsular War cannot be overestimated. At the outset in 1808 Napoleon and his Marshals appeared unstoppable. By the close Wellington and his Army had convincingly defeated the French and taken the war across the Pyrenees into France itself. He and his Generals had waged a hugely successful campaign both by conventional means and guerrilla warfare.This book contains the pithy biographies of some forty senior officers who served Wellington, in the majority of cases, so ably during this six year war. Many had experience of battle prior to the Peninsular and went on to greater heights thereafter. There is a section summarizing the major engagements that this 'band of brothers' took part in.The book is arranged in alphabetical order and each thoroughly researched entry places its subject's life in his historical and political context. The result is a highly entertaining, informative and authoritative book.

Whether any advantage or benefit will be drawn from the suspension or effective abolition of the rank of Field Marshal is debatable. What is certain, however, is that Dr. Tony Heathcotes idea of compiling a definitive biographical dictionary of holders of this illustrious rank since its introduction by George II in 1736, is opportune and inspired.

The first critical survey of Éric Jourdan, who came to public attention as a schoolboy in 1955, when he published Les Mauvais anges, a novel of adolescent male-to-male love. This study examines whether Jourdan's texts can be seen as homoerotic, homosexual, gay or queer, as well as the connection between sex, sexuality and writing in his work.