Wellington: The Iron Duke - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Feb, 2003

Wellington: The Iron Duke. Richard Holmes. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]20.00. 324 pages. ISBN 0-00-713748-6. This is the book of the television series, or rather, this latest biography of the first Duke of Wellington is by the tele-don who hosted programmes on the Duke. As befits a professor of military history the author concentrates on the Duke's role in fighting and finally defeating Bonaparte.

As a boy Prof. Holmes had 'hero-worshipped' the great Duke and whilst still venerating him, he sees that, like the rest of us, he had many faults, some of them grave: he could be harsh, snobbish, unfair and against political 'reform'. Prof. Holmes' aim here is 'to get as close to the real Wellington as he (and some of his biographers) would let me'. Having said this, he is in no doubt that Wellington came to 'bestride the Britain of his age like the proverbial colossus . . . Wellington may not always have been good: but he was unquestionably great'. If this biography does not give readers any startlingly new information or insights into Wellington's life, it does tell its story well and does bring his military career sharply into focus.