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Leonie And The Last Napoleon

by Tony Boullemier

333 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-3097; ISBN 1-4251-1338-9; US$22.52, C$25.90, EUR18.50, £12.95

Love, war and political intrigue in the glittering French Empire of Napoleon III. Kidnap, heartbreak and cruelty threaten Leonie's quest for happiness. Plus two revolutions and the Siege of Paris.

About the Book

Born in Paris at the height of France's 1848 revolution, Leonie Michel's early life is blighted by illness, drama and tragedy.

She is born almost blind; her father is taken to court for practising as a doctor while unqualified; and her mother dies when she is young.

Leonie has to cope with the predatory women who descend on her father and bleed him dry and she is then packed off to a cruel boarding school.

But matters improve when her father starts finding success with his unique new treatment for skin cancer. He begins curing people in high society and he and Leonie are invited to the Tuileries Palace where they meet Napoleon III.

Leonie is now a blonde beauty of 17 and enchants the ageing emperor. He encourages her ambition to become an actress and after she makes a successful debut, the dazzling city of Paris open up to her. She encounters celebrated writers, artists and musicians, not to mention the dashing soldiers of the Second Empire and their gilded women.

But she is also exposed to temptation and danger and an intimate encounter ends in a terrifying kidnap. When she falls in love, her future is ruined by the last person she would expect. And worse is to follow when war breaks out.

The Prussians invade France and their vast army besieges Paris. Leonie's family and friends are caught up in the bitter conflict as the starving city fights for its life, reduced to eating dogs, cats and zoo animals to survive.

What follows is yet another revolution and civil war. Some of Leonie's closest friends are killed and in her quest for peace and happiness, she flees to England where again her path crosses that of the Emperor.

Visit the website at www.leonieandthelastnapoleon.com

About the Author

Tony Boullemier was born in 1945 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England. Educated at the city's Royal Grammar School and Reading University, he trained as a reporter with his local paper, the Newcastle Journal.

When he joined the Daily Express in London, aged 23, he became one of the youngest sub-editors on Fleet Street.

In 1975 he moved to the Midlands and launched his own weekly newspaper in Northampton. As Managing Director, he built it into a group of 15 titles over 14 years before selling it to the International Thomson Organisation, one of the world's leading newspaper publishers.

Since then he has freelanced as a magazine producer, studied history and pursued his many sporting interests including cricket, football, skiing and golf.

Tony now lives with his wife and two children in an 18th Century stone house in Northamptonshire. The inspiration for writing this, his first book, came from a battered old diary, handed down to him after his father died.

The diary had been written by his French great grandmother Leonie, who had lived an extraordinary life in Paris and then in England.

He discovered his ancestors had met many of the great names from Louis Napoleon's Second Empire and this led him to research his family and the history of the period.

The novel is based on their numerous true adventures, set in times that were as captivating and turbulent as any in history.

Excerpts