Brian Williams, what first attracted you to the period or periods you work in?
My father was a history teacher and one of my abiding memories of childhood is of him spreading a map out on the dinner party and showing me where Waterloo was. I had come home from a visit to the local library and I had asked him who Napoleon was. I had seen a biography of him and had asked my babysitter who had replied “You had better ask your father”.
It started a fascination with the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period.
Can you tell us a little about how you research? Has the process changed over the years?
Marshal Ney: Fall From Glory is my first book and was primarily researched from existing secondary sources with my own interpretation. A lot of reading.
The common phrase is that history is written by the victors. Do you think this is true?
Very much so. The phrase is a reminder to anyone interested in history to question who wrote what and why. I pity the public figure whose legacy is written by their enemies.
Are there any historians who helped shaped your career? Similarly, can you recommend three history books which budding historians should read?
Christopher Hibbert was the master of narrative popular history. Likewise Cecil Woodham-Smith. Their books bring history to life. Splendid pen pictures of personalities. A very definite influence on my style of writing.
If you could meet any figure from history, who would it be and why? Also, if you could witness any event throughout history, what would it be?
It would have to be Ney. I have grown very fond of him. His virtues were noble. He was astoundingly courageous. He was oblivious of danger. He had dash and indomitable determination. He was resourceful. No man showed more determination or initiative in a crisis. Action always brought out the best in him. He took decisions, he organised, he drove men to do the impossible. Politically naïve, extraordinarily vain and educationally limited Ney never mastered the nuances of personal diplomacy. A man on the battlefield, he seemed but a boy away from it.
It would have to be Waterloo. A bird’s eye view of a battle that still commands attention to this day.
If you could add any period or subject to the history curriculum, what would it be?
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. They left a legacy that endures to this day.
If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, either as a student or when you first started out as a writer, what would it be?
Perseverance. Keep at it.
Can you tell us a little bit about the project you are currently working on?
I have always been interested in the Franco Prussian War of 1870-71. One figure in particular stands out Francois Achille Brazaine, Marshal of the Empire under Napoleon III. A brave fighting soldier who was court martialled for treason after surrendering his army at Metz. Sentenced to death, it was commuted to life imprisonment, but he escaped to die an exile in Spain. Many historians view him as a simple soldier raised beyond his capabilities but made a scapegoat for deep failures in French military planning.
Brian Williams is an historian and author, whose book, Marshal Ney: Fall from Glory, was published in August 2025.
