Napoleon's Master

A fast-moving romp through Talleyrand’s life, engagingly admiring of its subject and appreciative of his many qualities – Adam Zamoyski * Sunday Telegraph *Marvellous – Ruth Scurr * Telegraph *A brisk and enjoyable book…an extraordinary story – David A. Bell * London Review of Books *Napoleon’s Master dwells particularly on Talleyrand’s struggle, as a man of peace, to restrain a genius of war. But it is alive also with the world of the Paris salon and the glittering connections of a most sociable diplomat * The Economist *A lucid and readable account of Talleyrand’s career – Robin Buss * Independent *An entertaining biography – Gavin Bowd * Scotland on Sunday *Enjoyably written, well balanced and clearly sympathetic * Irish Times *There was clearly something prodigious about the resilience of ‘Old Talley’, and David Lawday’s biography helps to explain how and why this icon of the Perigordian aristocracy was able to make himself indispensable to France’s post-revolutionary rulers * Literary Review *This is the most accurate picture we have yet had of this `elusive’ survivor. * Contemporary Reviewer *

David Lawday is a native of London, educated there and at Oxford. He is a writer and journalist who was a correspondent for twenty years with The Economist, now based in Paris where his son and daughter grew up and where he lives with his French wife.

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