The Road to Culloden Moor

How did Charles Edward Stuart and his failed Jacobite rising find such an enduring place in our popular memory?
How did a half-Polish prince, who was born in Rome and spoke with an Italian accent, become the Bonnie Prince Charlie of ballad, poem and song? Was he helped by more than just his good looks and personal magnetism?
He had inherited a legend that began in 1688 when his grandfather, James II, fled to France after being dethroned by William of Orange. Charles had an unshakeable belief in his right to the English Crown and his ability to repossess it. Brought up in a court of Jacobite exiles, his earliest memories were stories of the throne that he considered rightfully his.
The Road to Culloden Moor explores two phases in Charles’ life. Firstly, the series of dazzling successes that took Charles within striking distance of London, but which culminated in the disaster of Culloden, the last battle fought on British soil. Secondly, his escape after Culloden and his flight into the Highlands - the period which has fixed him so firmly into our collective consciousness.
Diana Preston depicts Charles’s journey with historical accuracy and excitement in this riveting account of one of Britain's most dashing historical figures.
Praise for The Road to Culloden Moor:
'Accomplished with verve and zest' - The Times Literary Supplement
‘Preston has a good story to tell and she tells it well... Preston’s portrait of a man whose life ended in total failure does set you thinking’ - Daily Telegraph
Diana Preston is an Oxford educated historian and author. Diana’s earlier books include the acclaimed Before the Fallout – From Marie Curie to Hiroshima which won the Los Angeles Times Prize for Science and Technology; Wilful Murder – The Sinking of the Lusitania which was made into a full-length TV movie by the BBC; A Higher Form of Killing – Six Weeks in Spring 1915 that Changed the Nature of Warfare, and Besieged in Peking – The 1900 Boxer Rebellion