Simon Scarrow’s Napoleon and Wellington juggernaut rolls onward, with the author offering up probably the strongest volume of the series so far. The approach of the previous books is continued, with parallel narratives of the two great men who we know are destined to meet on the battlefield of Waterloo. That’s still in the future for Fire and Sword, however, and what we have here covers Napoleon’s investiture as Emperor of France and extensive continental campaigns against Austria, Prussia, Russia and the beginnings of France’s entanglement in the Iberian Peninsula; meanwhile, Arthur Wellesley, having made a name for himself in India fighting colonial wars, is back in England and struggling to distinguish himself for service in Britain’s wars against the tyranny of the French.

It’s interesting to see the development of the two men’s characters as they age: Napoleon is becoming arrogant and conceited, unable to admit to mistakes, and wasteful of the lives of his men; Wellesley is still stiff and rather hidebound, but proves that he has learnt valuables lessons about leadership from his time in the subcontinent. He is a hard man to like – although his decision to honour a commitment to marry Kitty Pakenham, who he has not seen for ten years, is commendable, the way he reacts when he finally sees her, and the way he treats her in their marriage, is less impressive. Scarrow does a good job of giving him some kind of inner life, though, which is challenging for a character normally seen from the outside as aloof, supremely self-assured and intolerant of weakness or indulgence.

The weakness of the previous volumes, of finishing chapters with foreshadowing and portentious lines, is either less pronounced this time around, or I found it less annoying, perhaps because we are now getting to events of such significance that they truly merit an edge of melodrama: France seems addicted to war, yet alliances against the French are doomed to fail, with the British bankrolling continental opposition but seemingly unwilling to make a serious effort of their own. During the course of Fire and Sword, we have the news of the Battle of Trafalgar, making Britain safe from invasion – and there is finally an attempt to engage the French, first with the invasion of Denmark to stop the fleet at Copenhagen from falling in to French hands; and with the landing of British troops in Portugal to assist them against the French. In both cases, Wellesley is intimately involved, although only towards the end of the book does he get the authority and responsibility he so craves.

I can’t wait for the fourth and final volume: the French invasion of Russia, the Hundred Days, Waterloo and the aftermath, will hopefully ensure it’s a fitting finale to the series.

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