In this book Napoleon is shown for what and who he was and not as the caricature described by many bigoted 'historians', especially of the British persuasion. He was not short, he was often very generous and he seldom forgot a friend, particularly those from the early days, before he was famous. France was attacked in 1802, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1809 and 1814 - yet it is always Napoleon who is blamed for the so-called Napoleonic Wars, a misnomer if ever there was one. England with a mad King, a Prime Minister was was pickled in port, a Foreign Secretary who killed himself and a Prince Regent addicted to laudanum and alcohol - took umbrage that a genius across the Channel was ruling a country that had been Britain's enemy for decades. Napoleon, in the words of Napier - who served with British forces in the Peninsular and who was regarded as the finest historian of his day - was seen as the epitomization of the democratic forces that were swirling around Europe as a result of the American and French Revolutions. Hence the British Establishment wanted him destroyed at all costs.
