Gordon Corrigan turns his pen towards retelling, and analyzing, the epic story of the Waterloo Campaign. As is practically standard fare for UK authors, one would expect the focus to be on the British. Not so much here.
Corrigan takes his own military experience, as a former NATO officer, and long standing military historian to analyze all three of the principal armies: The British/Dutch/German, Prussian, and French, as well as discussing the leadership styles, and personalities of Wellington, Blücher, and Emperor Napoleon, as well as their command staff.
And it's that attention to detail on each sides General Staff sections that really proves to the reader that this is not just a wonderful retelling of an endlessly fascinating encounter, but that a true military expert is sitting you down before him, perhaps with a bottle of scotch to share, and conversing with you, in a highly engaging tone, his astute analysis of not just the Campaign as a whole, but the military systems, doctrines, and fighting men involved.
My only real complaint was his, bog standard British approach, really, to skimming through the much larger, and much bloodier, engagement at Ligny involving the Prussian and Napoleon himself, as opposed to Ney's sort of victory at Quatre-Bras. For those of us yearning to know more of the tactical details, and some anecdotes of, Napoleon's final battlefield triumph, it sees were still to be disappointed in that.
That said, none of the rest of the work is even remotely disappointing. My only other foray into Waterloo has been Cornwell's excellent, popular book, and David Hamilton Williams controversial title from back in the early 90's (which was published when I was a child, and which grabbed a copy as a teen, and read while in college in 2014, and one I intend to revisit soonish), so I can't claim any expertise in this tale, but I can heartily recommend Corrigan's work as the best of the three.
Extremely well written, very conversational in tone, you can practically hear the Scottish brogue coming through the pages, brilliantly analyzed, without beating one over the head with repetitious reminders of his thesis, while remaining as fair and unbiased as possible when discussing the three main protagonists, as well as honoring the courageous men involved on all sides, as befits a soldier honoring others who also served. And if you enjoy thoroughly witty, oft times laugh out loud moments, do read his footnotes.
(All the said, there might have been a couple of sarcastic quips tossed in regarding Napoleon, but then again he's a Scottish Brit, and I'm fairly certain they lose their citizenship if they don't utter so many anti-Bonapartisms per year... so have a heart.)
Overall I can recommend this as the best of the Waterloo studies I have encountered, and one I hope you'll get some enlightenment and enjoyment out of. Very highly recommended.