Brigadier Gerard and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and – by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view – English manners and attitudes. Gerard tells the stories from the point of view of an old man now living in retirement in Paris. We discover that he was born in Gascony in the early 1780s (he is 25 in "How the Brigadier Captured Saragossa"). In "How
Books for Keeps books: Books for Keeps Books for Keeps is a British online magazine covering children's books. The magazine launched in 1980 and includes books reviews, author interviews, and articles. The "Books for Keeps" website says it includes more than 12,500 reviews and more than 2,000 articles and interviews and quotes Philip Pullman as saying it is "the most important periodical in the world of British children's books." Brian Alderson (writer), founder of the Children's Books History Society and former Children's Book Editor for "The Times", writes a "Classics in Short" section in the magazine's back pages. Books for Keeps also publishes