The Last Campaign of
Marianne Tambour:
A Novel of Waterloo
SYNOPSIS
June 1815. Bonaparte has returned from Elba and marches with his army
to defeat the Prussian and English enemies of France. Within his ranks
is Marianne Tambour, a battle-weary canteen mistress for a battalion of
the Imperial Guard’s Foot Grenadiers. Just one of the many cantinières
who provide the lads with their brandy and home comforts, both in camp
and also in the thick of the fight.
Marianne is determined that, after this one last campaign, she will
make a new life for herself and her young daughter, since neither of
them has ever known anything but the rigors of warfare. But she has not
reckoned on the complications that will arise from a chance encounter
with another of the army’s women, Liberté Dumont – Dragoon trooper and
sometimes spy for the Machiavellian French Minister of Police, Fouché.
And Marianne wonders what she really wants, this hawk-faced trooper with
her visions, dreams and fancies.
Yet, for now, Liberté Dumont is the least of Marianne’s worries. Her
position as canteen mistress has not been easily won and she has made
enemies in the process. Lethal enemies. And creating a new life,
breaking with the army, needs money. Lots of money. So when Hawk-face
Dumont accidentally provides an opening for Marianne to rid herself of a
dangerous rival and also extends the possibility of fortunes to be
made, it looks like an opportunity too good to be refused.
The battles that both women must survive, however, at Ligny and
Quatre Bras, create their own problems. The closer they come to the
English Goddams, the more Marianne is haunted by the memory of the way
her adopted mother was butchered at their hands just a few years
earlier, in Spain. Thoughts of revenge torment her, distract her from
her goals. But her daughter’s capture by the Prussians, and Liberté
Dumont’s help in the quest to find the girl creates new and very
different bonds, between mother and daughter, and between the two women
themselves.
The climax will take place on the blood-soaked fields of Waterloo,
where Marianne Tambour and Liberté Dumont must each confront their
deadliest foes, their worst nightmares, find answers to the secrets of
their respective pasts, and try to simply survive the slaughter. Yet the
fortunes of war are not easily won, and the fates may, after all, only
allow one of these women to see the next day’s dawn.
David Ebsworth’s story, The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour: A Novel of Waterloo,
is based upon the real-life exploits of two women who fought, in their
own right, within Bonaparte’s army.
MY REVIEW
I have not read many war novels that were narrated by female narrators, so it was a unique experience to read this novel as we get to see the war from their view point. It's very clear that the author spent a lot of time researching this novel. At times I forgot that I was reading historical fiction as it definitely read like non-fiction at times for me but it makes sense that it read that way since it's based on the real-life exploits of two women. The author did spend time developing the story of these two women but the detailed accounts of the battles and experiences of war made it feel like non-fiction.
I knew very little about the build up to Waterloo or about the battle of Waterloo so it was interesting to learn more about a period of time that I was very unfamiliar with. Like I said, the narrators of the story are women but the author is male and I don't know that the voice of the narrators really came across as truly female to me. I've had that experience with other books I've read where a male tries to write from a female perspective; I think it's very difficult to write from the view point of the opposite sex.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Ebsworth is the pen name of writer, Dave McCall,
a former negotiator and Regional Secretary for Britain’s Transport & General Workers’ Union. He was born in Liverpool (UK)
but has lived for the past thirty years in Wrexham, North Wales,
with his wife, Ann. Since their retirement in 2008,
the couple have spent about six months of each year in southern Spain. Dave began to write seriously in the following year, 2009,
and The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour is his fourth novel.
a former negotiator and Regional Secretary for Britain’s Transport & General Workers’ Union. He was born in Liverpool (UK)
but has lived for the past thirty years in Wrexham, North Wales,
with his wife, Ann. Since their retirement in 2008,
the couple have spent about six months of each year in southern Spain. Dave began to write seriously in the following year, 2009,
and The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour is his fourth novel.
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