Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud (in French)

In October 1815, Napoleon and his companions, accompanied by a British garrison charged with guarding him, landed on a remote and rocky island in the middle of the South Atlantic. The quiet history of this tiny colony was to be changed forever by this unexpected arrival. With the history of Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena already well-known, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau approaches it from a different angle, and takes a look at the lives of those who were caught up in the episode. In addition to Hudson Lowe, the reader is introduced to the decidedly odd Reverend Boys, Solomon “the Jew”, the feisty Betsy Balcombe, Cipriani the major-domo, the slaves working on the island, the East India Company's Chinese natives, and the prostitutes hanging around the prison; in short a microcosm worthy of Balzac's Comédie humaine.
 
This work has been awarded the Fondation Napoléon First Empire history prize for 2011.

Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, French honorary consul and curator of the French domains on St Helena, has lived on the island for nearly thirty years. No-one knows the island's history, geography and traditions better than he does. To mark the release of his book, Michel spoke to napoleon.org about his duties on the island, the research and work that went into Chroniques, and Operation St Helena, launched in November 2010 by the Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien.