The Long Road to War: from Waterloo to World War I

Join us for an enthralling evening with one of our foremost military historians and novelists, as Allan Mallinson explores one of the outcomes of Bonaparte’s defeat: the creation of Belgium, and with it the long road to war in 1914. His new novel, Words of Command, begins in 1830, with one of the hardest winters in memory, with growing calls for parliamentary reform, scenes of violent unrest in the countryside. and little or no police outside London. In these harsh times, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey takes command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons.

But the excitement really starts when the Sixth are sent to Brussels for the fifteenth anniversary celebrations of the battle of Waterloo and find themselves caught up in the Belgian uprising against Dutch rule. Will Hervey be able to keep out of the fighting – a war that would lead, nearly a century later, to Britain’s involvement in an altogether different war – while safeguarding his country’s interests?