Tuesday 30 June 2015

It's My Party...


This is my blog and I brag if I want to


Evert Pater shot this brilliant picture, passing by
The last couple of weeks have been very nice. It all started with the presentation of the book in the Rijksmuseum, together with an exhibition on the battle. I had so many friends and family around it was amazing and I lacked the time to talk to anyone for a sensible time. Not the least because Isabelle was tugging my arm constantly to catch the autographs of my co-authors. But for me it was wonderful to be in the centre of attention. Read a report by Dutch national broadcaster NOS and view the pictures taken by newspaper Parool.

The book has been well received with very favourable reviews in Dutch newspapers NRC (free but registration required) and Trouw (free but registration required) and some historical magazines, such as Historiek, and information vault Kennislink.

Co-author Jeroen van Zanten was interviewed in the Flemish magazine Knack (May 22nd).
Co-author Ben Schoenmaker was interviewed for the Defensiekrant

There have been a number of appearances on Dutch radio and TV:
Ben on Nieuwsuur (June 18th, after 17 minutes)
Me on OVT history programme (June 14th)
Jeroen on TROS nieuwsshow (June 6th) and on Een Vandaag (May 25th)

And we ain't done yet

An article by my hand will appear in the next issue of Mars et Historia, a Dutch magazine on military history, somewhere next month. And I went out on June 19th with a camera crew for the Dutch ironic society programme Hoe Heurt 't Eigenlijk? with dandy presenter Jort Kelder, who proved to be a bit of a history buff. I was bombarded with questions for almost 6 hours straight (except when they were interviewing the Prince of Orange and a few others in the Waterloo bivouac), even when the camera was off. Due to be broadcast somewhere this autumn.

There will also be a number of public lectures, with me appearing at Donner book shop in Rotterdam in October.

5 comments:

  1. Wow that's exciting stuff, hope it goes from strength to strength

    Ian

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    1. Thanks Ian! I'm not to sure how things will hold up now that Waterloo commemoration is past, but as far as I can tell the book has already been a success. There is talk of a reprint.

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  2. Seriously, any chance of an English translation? I would read the shit out of this.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, Doc, that's not on the cards. Publisher says there's too much out on Waterloo in the English language as it is, and I understand that Anglo-Saxon publishers prefer to focus on Anglo-Saxon success stories, not on reclaiming history for their allies. However, there is an excellent account available in English through Lulu http://1815fieldarmy.nl. This guy has done a lot of research. It is however for the Waterloo afficionado, due to it's length

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    2. Daaaamn. I'm not going to learn to read Dutch anytime soon.

      That's a shame and loss for all that wider casting "historical" accounts aren't readily available to all.

      I know nothing about Waterloo but what a thrill it would have been to have read about it from a different country's perspective before reading the Anglosized versions.

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