{"title":"Jacqueline Reiter","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"late-lord-the-life-of-john-pitt-book-jacqueline-reiter-9781473856950","title":"Late Lord: The Life of John Pitt","description":"John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham is one of the most enigmatic and overlooked figures of early nineteenth century British history. The elder brother of Pitt the Younger, he has long been consigned to history as 'the late Lord Chatham', the lazy commander-in-chief of the 1809 Walcheren expedition, whose inactivity and incompetence turned what should have been an easy victory into a disaster. Chatham's poor reputation obscures a fascinating and complex man. During a twenty-year career at the heart of government, he served in several important cabinet posts such as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master-General of the Ordnance. Yet despite his closeness to the Prime Minister and friendship with the Royal Family, political rivalries and private tragedy hampered his ascendance. Paradoxically for a man of widely admired diplomatic skills, his downfall owed as much to his personal insecurities and penchant for making enemies as it did to military failure. Using a variety of manuscript sources to tease Chatham from the records, this biography peels away the myths and places him for the first time in proper familial, political, and military context.It breathes life into a much-maligned member of one of Britain's greatest political dynasties, revealing a deeply flawed man trapped in the shadow of his illustrious relatives.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49521556259089,"sku":"GOR009757491","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51516966830353,"sku":"GOR008713941","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53385366307089,"sku":"GOR014892610","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1473856957.jpg?v=1750924014"},{"product_id":"earl-of-shadows-a-moving-historical-novel-about-two-brothers-in-18th-century-eng-book-jacqueline-reiter-9781973145165","title":"Earl of Shadows: A moving historical novel about two brothers in 18th century England","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49655024222481,"sku":"GOR008998446","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53432146067729,"sku":"GOR009391515","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1973145162.jpg?v=1751125660"},{"product_id":"quicksilver-captain-book-jacqueline-reiter-9781804514412","title":"Quicksilver Captain","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn influential yet controversial naval officer who played key roles in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars through unconventional methods and secretive operations.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eQuicksilver Captain\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of Sir Home Popham (1762-1820), an extraordinary and under-appreciated personality of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Popham was a bundle of highly unusual contradictions. He achieved the rank of post-captain without a ship; he was more often employed by the War Department than by the Admiralty; and, as an expert in combined operations, he spent almost as much time serving on shore as at sea. In just over 25 years as a naval officer, Popham acted as an agent for transports, an unofficial diplomat, an intelligence officer, a Member of Parliament, an acclaimed hydrographer, a scientist and inventor, a publicist, and a government adviser, among many other roles.Popham's career was literally as well as figuratively amphibious. So was his personality. Popham's well-known past as an illicit private trader, as well as his notorious lack of scruples, marred his reputation. People meeting him for the first time did not know what to make of him: 'He seems a pleasant man, but a dasher.' He fully understood the importance of communication and is best known for inventing a signal code that the Royal Navy used for decades. When he died, he left reams of correspondence behind him. But he also understood that words could either obfuscate or illuminate the truth, and his genius for twisting the facts to suit his own purposes made him an unreliable narrator. Many contemporaries distrusted and loathed him; after his court martial in 1807 for attacking Buenos Aires without orders (he escaped with a reprimand), many of his naval peers refused outright to serve with him again. And yet, even his greatest critics could not deny his abilities. One of his fellow naval captains wrote what could have been his epitaph: 'He is an extraordinary man, and would have been a great man, had he been honest.'\u003ci\u003eQuicksilver Captain\u003c\/i\u003e paints a portrait of an ambitious man who built a career based on secrets and shadows. Popham's direct line to important patrons like William Pitt and Henry Dundas allowed him to play a role far beyond that of an ordinary post-captain. His ideas for using Britain's naval might for imperial defense and expanding British trade, as well as his knowledge of combined operations, made him the politicians' go-to expert. They wanted results, no matter what the cost, and Popham's willingness to play dirty - using bribery, threats, and experimental weaponry - appealed to them. In return, they protected him from his many foes, although in the end, they could not save him from his worst enemy - himself.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50176999981329,"sku":"NGR9781804514412","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50438992560401,"sku":"GOR013951508","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1804514411.jpg?v=1751444314"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-jacqueline-reiter.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}