Ruth Scurr

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Historian, biographer and literary critic Ruth Scurr throws new light on the life and character of Naopleon by looking at his love of nature and gardens.

Napoleon’s gardens included his childhood olive groves in Corsica, Josephine’s gardens and menageries in Paris, gardens in Cairo, Rome and on Elba, the walled garden of Hougoumont at the battle of Waterloo, and his final garden on St Helena. Scurr places Napoleon in the context of ideas about nature, human nature, the natural world, and relationships between them, which were fiercely debated during the French Revolution. Napoleon wanted to heal the wounds of the revolution and saw himself as a patron of sciences and progress.

‘If you read just one biography this year, make it Ruth Scurr’s brilliant and original exploration of Napoleon’s life as an amateur gardener. Everything makes sense once you realise this was a man obsessed with making nature go his way.’ Amanda Foreman

Scurr teaches history and politics at the University of Cambridge. Her book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, won the Franco-British Society Literary Prize.