The Marshal's Lover -- The Heist

[jo_graham]

Someone just asked me for more Elza, so I'll share a piece from the next book, The Marshal's Lover, which I hope will be out late this year. In which Elza, in her guise as Charles, burgles the palace at Naples with a young British agent....

Comments

[ashabardon]

Ahhh huzzah! I love this passage, the dildos especially, it just makes me chuckle so much ... you burgle somewhere and take the antique sex toys :D

Is it completely wrong that all I want to know is: What happens to the dildo Elza kept? Hmmm? Hmmm?????

[jo_graham]

I'm not sure what happened to it! A souvenir of her adventure, one assumes!

[ashabardon]

Well if you do ever find out, do let us know. Something that rare should be ... treasured :D

[aishabintjamil]

Very nice. I particularly like the line bit starting with "Only in bad novels..."

[jo_graham]

Elza has style! One must give her that. She always has style! :)

ney

[ext_2495956]

your books about Ney Moreau and La Contemporaine are fantastic!

Re: ney

[jo_graham]

Thank you so very much!

[ext_2495956]

Michel Ney is my historical hero and I read almost all what has been written about him and his glorious and tragic life. I am looking forward to read your next book, The marshal's lover,and I hope you will put 'a lot of Michel Ney' into it!!I think you are a great storyteller and I enjoyed the way you featured the great marshal,who many superficially described as a simple man. On the contrary he had an elusive, dual personality and, as the duchesse d'Abrantes reports in her 'Memoirs' he was the most interesting and important figure among the inner circle that sorrounded the Emperor.

[jo_graham]

Thank you! I have always been fascinated by Michel Ney, and first attempted to write his story when I was fifteen. I agree with you that he is very complex. He has such contradictory traits in some ways, a man both frightening and ruthless in battle and gentle and kind with his family and friends. As you say, elusive. Writing him, and his relationship with Elza, is fascinating.

[ext_2495956]

As I said above, I have a great passion for the Napoleonic Era and I wrote a few articles on Ney, Murat, Moreau, Talleyrand and a short biography about marshal Ney. It's very difficult to write about Michel's life because, even if his military 'correspondance' is rich, his personal letters are very few, and there are none between him and his wife at the 'Archives Nationales' in Paris, which is disappointing. I also wrote a piece about the Waterloo 'enigma'and how the propaganda and the books inspired by Napoleon at St.Helena to save his reputation, made Ney a scapegoat for the defeat. Actually the marshal did the impossible to win, at Quatre Bras and then at Mont St.Jean, but he was outnumbered by an enemy, the Prussians, Napoleon didn't even know or admit was there. In both cases the Emperor took away from him the troops of infantry he desperately needed to prevail.