Bernard Cornwell · 2025 · overland

Bernard Cornwell's 2025 novel of the invasion of southern France, winter 1813. Wellington's army is over the Pyrenees and onto French soil for the first time, in appalling weather, with Soult holding a line of rivers in front of Bayonne. The fighting is done in mud and flood, and the question is whether the army can be supplied at all before spring.

1. 1
   The Nivelle

   The army forces the line of the Nivelle and is into France - the first invasion of French soil in twenty years - and Wellington's chief problem becomes an army of allies he does not entirely trust not to plunder the country.

2. 2
   The Nive

   The Nive is crossed in December in flood, splitting the army across two rivers - and Soult attacks the divided halves in turn over several days of fighting in flooded fields and sunken lanes.

3. 3
   Bayonne

   Bayonne holds behind its rivers and entrenchments, and the winter campaign becomes a matter of supply, weather and whether the army can be got across the Adour at all - which is done, eventually, with a bridge of boats.