Edward Shawcross on The People's Emperor: The Unlikely Rise and Spectacular Fall of Napoleon III

Edward Shawcross is coming to Topping & Company Booksellers on Wednesday 26 August, starting at 7pm. He's there to talk about his new biography of Napoleon III, The People's Emperor: The Unlikely Rise and Spectacular Fall of Napoleon III, a book that takes a long look at one of the nineteenth century's most overlooked figures.

Shawcross is a historian who holds a PhD specialising in nineteenth-century France, and he's previously written The Last Emperor of Mexico. He describes Napoleon III as 'the other Napoleon', and the evening follows the man's unlikely rise from exile to Emperor of the French, and the dramatic events that shaped his life. It's a story that starts with a family name and ends with a spectacular fall.

Simon Sebag Montefiore gave the book five stars, calling it 'a gripping, fascinating biography that rightly rehabilitates the statesman but also relishes the power, the sex and the fun of his extraordinary rise and fall.' That's a fair summary of what to expect: the political side of the man's career sits alongside the more colourful, personal details of his life.

The talk is at Topping & Company Booksellers, 1 Museum Street, York, YO1 7DT, just opposite York Minster. It starts at 7pm on Wednesday 26 August.