Customer Reviews
Fascinating! - By: Evgenian, 06 Aug 2007 
A great book with an interesting angle! For those who enjoyed it, why not try Betsy Balcome's own memoirs (witttenin the 1840s) entitled "To Befriend an Emperor" & recently reprinted.
An Excellent Account of a True Story - By: Livvy H, 28 Mar 2006 Betsy & the Emperor tells the story of Betsy Balcombe, a fourteen year old girl who lives on the remote island of St. Helena. She has just come back from schoolin England, & expects her life on St. Helena will be boring, as, although inhabited, it is mountaineous & small & stuck outin the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This is until Napoleon Bonaparte, the former emperor of France & now a prisoner, is taken to St. Helena as it is miles & miles from anywhere, & there is no clear way of escape. Read how the friendship between the two flourishesin leaps & bounds, & how events & time changes the two.
It is an excellent book, setin the early 1800s. At school, we seem to jump from the Stuarts to the Victorians, missing out the vital & intriguing partin the middle, so this is a refreshing insightin to what life was like back then, & about Napoleon & Betsy. It is well researched & beautifully written.
I recommend it for ages 12 +
