Tony Boullemier was born in 1945 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in north east England and educated at the city’s Royal Grammar School and Reading University.
He trained as a reporter with the Newcastle Journal and at 23 joined the Daily Express in London where he became one of Fleet Street’s youngest sub-editors.

In 1975 he moved to the midlands to launch his own newspaper group. He ran it for 14 years before selling to the International Thomson Organisation, one of the world's leading newspaper publishers.

Since then he has freelanced as a magazine producer, studied medieval history with Leicester University
and military history through Holts Battlefield Tours.
His sporting interests include cricket, football, skiing and golf.

Why he wrote Leonie and the last Napoleon

All journalists are convinced they have a book in them. They just need time and inspiration. Tony was lucky to have the time. And even luckier when inspiration arrived in the shape of a battered old diary, handed down to him after his father died.

It had been kept by Leonie, his French great grandmother. She and her family had lived an extraordinary life in Paris where they knew many
of the great names of the Second Empire.

When Tony researched their adventures and the amazing life
of the Emperor Napoleon III, he had found his story.