This novel is set in France's glittering Second Empire when Paris was known as Europe's Capital of Light and Pleasure.

With its shimmering gaslights, dazzling inventions, artistic delights and racy nightlife, all played out to Offenbach's lilting melodies, it closed the door on the age of revolutions.

Until things went wrong.

The Second Empire was all the doing of one man, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (pictured right), nephew of the first great Emperor. After spending most of his life in exile, he seized his chance to return in 1848 when the people overthrew King, Louis-Philippe.

Louis Napoleon got himself elected to the National Assembly and stood in the election for France's first president. He won in a landslide with voters seduced by the glamour of his name.

In 1851 he staged a coup d'etat to extend his four year term to ten years. And the following year he was elected as Emperor, again by a huge majority.

Since the first Bonaparte had had a son who died young, but had been known to Bonapartistes as Napoleon II, Louis took the title of Napoleon III.

He moved into the Tuileries Palace and the first half of his reign was highly successful. He and his Empress Eugenie forged a close friendship with Britain's Queen Victoria and many old enmities were buried when the two nations fought as allies in the Crimean War.

Louis reformed many aspects of French life. He instructed Baron Haussmann to rebuild the centre of Paris and he promoted the growth of railways, banking, health care, commerce, shipbuilding and the telegraph.


Music, the arts and popular entertainment flourished and taking their example from an Emperor with a wandering eye, the middle and upper classes partied like never before. For Leonie, growing up in this dazzling city was filled with delights. But also with dangers.

None more so than when Louis' But foreign policy went disatrously wrong. He sought to exert influence across four continents, rather than to conquer countries like his uncle had done. And a succession of bad decisions culminated in a humiliating war with Prussia.

Paris was besieged and the Emperor was exiled again. This time it was to Chislehurst in Southern England, along with Eugenie and their only child, the Prince Imperial.

From there he could only look on in horror as his former capital experienced the bloodiest revolution of them all.

Chislehurst Guide: http://Rands.Holman.org

For more on this exceptional Emperor, see Tony Boullemier's article 'My History Hero - Napoleon III; from the BBC History Magazine, June 2010 download here

Background to the Michel and Boullemier families

Leonie Michel was born in Paris in 1848, the year that Louis Napoleon returned there from exile. She and Louis also departed for England in the same year, 1871. Leonie had many encounters with the Imperial Family and her father did cure the Emperor. Her brother certainly helped save the Empress's life and the remarkable story of the wedding day flower and the chance meeting with the wounded officer in Bar-le-Duc did take place.

Leonie's husband Anton became a world-renowned ceramic artist with Mintons in Staffordshire. His work is still admired today, along with that of his son Lucien Emile and grandson Lucien George, the author's father. They were also eminent ceramic artists at leading Staffordshire Potteries and then at Maling Pottery, Newcastle upon Tyne. See:
www.thepotteries.org/potters/minton.htm
www.maling-pottery.org.uk

Background to the book cover:

The colour Magenta was named in 1859 just after the costly battle in Italy. The new dye had recently been developed in Paris and ladies there thought that the vivid colour resembled blood. The cover picture is by Jean Beraud (1849-1935).

An exact contemporary of Leonie, they could well have known one another. A friend of Manet, Degas and Renoir, his work has the spirit of Impressionism and owes something to the new art of photography. He frequently exhibited at the Salon and in 1910 helped found the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux Arts.