Alumni and guests are invited to join the Cambridge Society of Paris, for an online talk by Dr Peter Hicks - Napoleon and the British, before and during St Helena.

The first-ever biographies of Napoleon were written not in French but in English, the only serious biographies of the Consul and later Emperor were written in the same language and during his lifetime. During both of his abdications and exiles, ‘Boney’ was frequently the subject of books, newspaper articles, etc. The exile on St Helena was to provide for the springboard for an obsession in the English-language world that lasts to this day. My talk will discuss this little-known, British part in the telling of the Napoleon story.

About the speaker
Peter Hicks is an historian of the Napoleonic period and International Affairs manager at the Fondation Napoléon, Paris. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Bath (UK) (2008-2018) and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution, Florida State University, USA. He also is Chargé de cours at the Institut Catholic des Etudes Supérieures (ICES) La Roche sur Yon. 
His upcoming Napoleonic musical projects include: a Napoleonic recital (piano and voice), Lucca, Italy, August 2021 (covid permitting, but it is open air…), and the creation, organization and conducting of two concerts of famous and rare Napoleonic music, Hôtel des Invalides, October 2021 (choir, soloists and orchestra).