Longest Afternoon

The brevity of this remarkable book belies the amount of work that went into it. One can only marvel at how well Professor Simms has gone through the original sources - the surviving journals, reminiscences and letters of the individual combatants - to produce a coherent and gripping narrative -- Nick Lezard The Guardian A superb little book that is micro-history at its best -- Paul O'Keeffe Washington Post Mr. Simms's fluent and meticulously researched narrative provides enough context to engage not only specialists, but also readers unfamiliar with the broader historical background...by focusing upon a particular episode, rather than the bigger picture, Mr. Simms manages to reflect the grim reality of Waterloo better than some more comprehensive surveys -- Stephen Brumwell The Wall Street Journal [Simms] tells more about realities of boots-on-the-ground combat than any other Waterloo book I have encountered. A five-gun read. -- Joseph C. Goulden Washington Times