As the celebrations for the bicentenary of Trafalgar approach, with a whole fleet of new publications promised, it is easy to forget that the previous centennial commemorations in 1905 produced their own small squadron of noteworthy books. Chatham has already reprinted one in Colonel Robert Holden Mackenzie’s The Trafalgar Roll that is still very useful, but is following up with another, Edward Fraser’s The Enemy at Trafalgar. Even after a century and literally hundreds of titles devoted to the events surrounding the battle, this latter volume remains the only English-language book that takes the viewpoint of the defeated – and what is more, makes it thoroughly good reading. The overwhelming nature of the British victory, and the poignant death of Nelson that commands so much attention, has sometimes obscured the hard-fought nature of the combat. Fraser’s desire to do justice to the efforts of the opposition was encouraged by the newly established Anglo-French entente cordiale – another centenary celebrated recently by the Queen’s state visit to France – and the arrival of a French battle squadron at Spithead. Fraser unearthed a rich vein of material, from eyewitness narratives and personal letters to official dispatches (and even illustrations), which he wrought with considerable subtlety into a coherent view of the battle from the other side. As Michael Nash says in the new Introduction, ‘. . . in choosing this approach Fraser not only united a great variety of material not previously brought together, but he also made many foreign accounts available in English for the first time. Most of them have not been challenged, so that the collection, presented by Fraser, remains a valuable source for the understanding of the Battle of Trafalgar in its international context.Frontispiece to The Enemy at Trafalgar, showing the arrival of the French fleet in 1905 to celebrate the entente cordiale – as much the inspiration for the book as the centenary of Trafalgar itself. Nelson’s Victory can be seen in the background. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 129 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com