The French Macdonald. Journey of a Marshal of Napoleon in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Marshal Macdonald,Duke of Tarentum. The 1825 Travel Diary of Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexandre Macdonald, with translation and commentary by Jean-Didier Hache and Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart

 
From the publishers
In 1746, Neil MacEachen left his native South Uist for the last time – in the company of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and hunted by Hanoverian forces on land and sea. Three-quarters of a century later, Neil's son, Marshal Alexandre MacDonald, Marshal of France, created Duke of Tarentum by Napoleon, and High Chancellor of the Order of the Légion d'Honneur, returns to Scotland and the islands of his ancestors and if feted as a hero by the British establishment.
Throughout his trip in 1825, Marshal Alexandre MacDonald kept a diary. This fascinating document, ignored for generations and containing some very frank observations on people he met from Sir Walter Scott to his Macdonald forebears in the Hebrides, was found recently in the French national Archives and translated from the original French by Jean-Dider Hache. Giving an intimate account of a vanished society and a unique insight into the fabric of nineteenth century Scotland, this is the very human tale of one man's search for his roots.
 
About the translator
Jean-Didier Hache is an independent scholar with a special interest in Franco-Scottish relations.