It is 1809. Austria is back in the war and London is committed to a new campaign in Europe. A force of 40,000 men and 600 ships gathers along the south coast of England. They are destined for Walcheren, and a lightning strike against the French dockyards on the Scheldt.
Captain Hugh Kelly RN is once again embroiled in a joint operation with the army with his old adversary Sir Home Popham, a man who never forgets a perceived slight. Alfred Durrell, Hugh’s first lieutenant, is on secondment as Popham’s aide, a posting which places him at the heart of the campaign as relations between the army and navy
begin to deteriorate.
I write historical novels about fictional characters who are very firmly rooted into real historical events, and who rub shoulders with real people from history. For example, I have written five books of the Peninsular War Saga, which follows the story of a fictional character called Paul van Daan, who joins a fictional infantry regiment in 1802 as a junior officer and rises through the ranks as the war progresses.
The fictional aspect of this enables me to create a story for Paul, to give him a suitably eccentric wife and a whole cast of fellow officers and men who serve in the 110th. However, since I have placed the regiment into the real framework of Wellington’s army, I have real characters such as Robert Craufurd, Charles Alten, Andrew Barnard and of course Lord Wellington himself, who need to be meticulously researched to make them believable. I need to know where they were and what they were doing, but I also need to find out what they were like in order for them to develop relationships with my fictional cast. It’s complicated.
More than a year ago, in a moment of genuine madness, I decided to begin a second, connected series, featuring a Manx Royal Navy captain, Hugh Kelly. My rationale for this was that I was constantly being asked when I was going to write a novel about my home, the Isle of Man. The island isn’t famous for its army connections, although there are some, but the navy is a different matter.
More than a year ago, in a moment of genuine madness, I decided to begin a second, connected series, featuring a Manx Royal Navy captain, Hugh Kelly. My rationale for this was that I was constantly being asked when I was going to write a novel about my home, the Isle of Man. The island isn’t famous for its army connections, although there are some, but the navy is a different matter.
Hugh Kelly was born, and I decided to link him with the original series, by writing about the Copenhagen campaign of 1807. I had mentioned that Paul van Daan had been present at that campaign, although I’d not written about his role there. An Unwilling Alliance enabled Paul and Hugh to meet. It was a great success and the book was shortlisted for this year’s Society for Army Historical Research fiction prize.
There was no question about writing a sequel, but it had to make sense historically, and to be honest, writing about the navy post-Trafalgar meant I was a bit limited. I had enjoyed linking my army and navy sagas in the first book, and while I was looking for a campaign, I remembered Walcheren. Once again, I had written that the second battalion of the 110th, not Paul’s battalion, had served at Walcheren.
There was no question about writing a sequel, but it had to make sense historically, and to be honest, writing about the navy post-Trafalgar meant I was a bit limited. I had enjoyed linking my army and navy sagas in the first book, and while I was looking for a campaign, I remembered Walcheren. Once again, I had written that the second battalion of the 110th, not Paul’s battalion, had served at Walcheren.
I cheerfully mentioned this to several fellow writers or historians. Most told me I was insane to write a novel about such a disastrous campaign. Dr Jacqueline Reiter, an expert on the campaign, who has written a biography of Lord Chatham, the commander of the army and is currently researching Sir Home Popham, got really really excited about the idea. With her help in matters of research, I couldn’t resist.
The problem with Walcheren is that there is no glory. There are a few skirmishes and a couple of brutal bombardments of Dutch towns. Vlissingen was almost destroyed. After that, the army arrived on South Beveland, realised that Antwerp was too well defended and that their troops were beginning to collapse with the lethal combination of malaria and dysentery known as Walcheren fever, and made a miserable and inglorious retreat. At least four thousand men died of Walcheren fever and many more suffered recurrent illness for years.
Back in England, there were recriminations in the press and a public outcry and a Parliamentary inquiry followed. The novel places one of my characters squarely in the middle of the ensuing mess and enabled me to look at the political consequences of the failure of the biggest and most expensive expedition of the war. It was particularly interesting to study the struggle of a weak government to fight off repeated attacks given the recent political climate.
I spent a long time researching this book. There is far less written about it, either in contemporary sources or modern interpretations, than most of the other Napoleonic campaigns. Jacqueline Reiter was unbelievably generous in sharing her sources, and Gareth Glover also sent me several excerpts from journals and letters that I had never seen. In a campaign lasting just a few months there is less room for error about dates and events, so my research has been meticulous.
I love this book. In it, I have left behind the death or glory of some of the big set piece battles of the Peninsular War. I always try to capture the human side of war, the details of the aftermath as well as the violence of the conflict, but there is so much more opportunity in a campaign that is going so badly wrong.
The problem with Walcheren is that there is no glory. There are a few skirmishes and a couple of brutal bombardments of Dutch towns. Vlissingen was almost destroyed. After that, the army arrived on South Beveland, realised that Antwerp was too well defended and that their troops were beginning to collapse with the lethal combination of malaria and dysentery known as Walcheren fever, and made a miserable and inglorious retreat. At least four thousand men died of Walcheren fever and many more suffered recurrent illness for years.
Back in England, there were recriminations in the press and a public outcry and a Parliamentary inquiry followed. The novel places one of my characters squarely in the middle of the ensuing mess and enabled me to look at the political consequences of the failure of the biggest and most expensive expedition of the war. It was particularly interesting to study the struggle of a weak government to fight off repeated attacks given the recent political climate.
I spent a long time researching this book. There is far less written about it, either in contemporary sources or modern interpretations, than most of the other Napoleonic campaigns. Jacqueline Reiter was unbelievably generous in sharing her sources, and Gareth Glover also sent me several excerpts from journals and letters that I had never seen. In a campaign lasting just a few months there is less room for error about dates and events, so my research has been meticulous.
I love this book. In it, I have left behind the death or glory of some of the big set piece battles of the Peninsular War. I always try to capture the human side of war, the details of the aftermath as well as the violence of the conflict, but there is so much more opportunity in a campaign that is going so badly wrong.
I visited this a little during my previous book, which dealt with the disastrous retreat from Burgos in 1812, but Walcheren puts that in the shade. At the same time, since these are real people, there is still a place for courage and integrity, for love and family, for ambition and the brutal reality of war. There is even a place for humour, from the relentless self-publicising of Sir Home Popham, to the inability of Chatham to be on time for anything at all.
This Blighted Expedition is the story of real people, some of whom turned out to be heroic in unexpected ways. It is available on Amazon kindle in the UK here and the US here and will be out in paperback by the end of November. In the meantime, I am about to embark on book six of the Peninsular War Saga.
This Blighted Expedition is the story of real people, some of whom turned out to be heroic in unexpected ways. It is available on Amazon kindle in the UK here and the US here and will be out in paperback by the end of November. In the meantime, I am about to embark on book six of the Peninsular War Saga.
It’s called An Unrelenting Enmity and to give myself a kick start with the writing process, I am attempting NaNaWriMo for the first time ever. To follow my progress why not join me on my blog over at Writing with Labradors, or on Facebook or Twitter?
Lynn Bryant
Lynn Bryant was born and raised in London's East End. She studied History at University and had dreams of being a writer from a young age. Since this was clearly not something a working class girl made good could aspire to, she had a variety of careers including a librarian, NHS administrator, relationship counsellor and manager of an art gallery before realising that most of these were just as unlikely as being a writer and took the step of publishing her first book. She now lives in the Isle of Man and is married to a man who understands technology, which saves her a job, and has two teenage children and two labradors. History is still a passion, with a particular enthusiasm for the Napoleonic era and the sixteenth century. When not writing she runs an Irish dance school, reads anything that's put in front of her and makes periodic and unsuccessful attempts to keep a tidy house. Find out more at Lynn's website http://www.lynnbryant.co.uk/ and find her on Twitter @LynnBry29527024
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