My hero... Peter Snow swings his attention to Iron Duke who led Britain to glory

Another, younger, generation will recognise him from his Battlefield Britain TV series, in which he and his son Dan, brought to life the epic battles of the past. It is in his guise as a historical author that the acclaimed broadcaster will be attending the Ilkley Literature Festival next month to discuss his new book on Arthur Wellesley, better known as the Duke of Wellington.

To War With Wellington – From the Peninsula to Waterloo skilfully weaves together the many facets of Wellington's military and political life along with insights into his personality from those who knew him. "He was the towering figure of the age, he won every major battle he ever fought and by the time he beat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo he was seen as a legend and a national hero in Britain," says Snow.

Wellington transformed an army of soldiers he once described as "the scum of the earth", into the most formidable fighting force of their time. But although the man nicknamed "The Iron Duke" gained a fearsome reputation, Snow says his formative years gave little inkling as to the man he would later become. "He began life as a very sensitive boy who played the violin without ever shining. He failed to get anywhere at Eton and his mother reportedly said, 'what shall I do with my awkward son Arthur'."

So what transformed this rather diffident, unpromising youngster into one of the most important figures of the 19th century? "He went off to a French military and equestrian school in Angers and it changed his life. He learned to ride a horse brilliantly and speak French, and he came back a different man," Snow explains. Not only was the young Arthur Wellesley a changed man, but he also dropped his pursuit of music in favour of a career in the British Army. His elder brother just so happened to be Governor General of India and Wellesley was made commander of the army in India, where he cut his military teeth before returning home to England.

In 1806, he became an MP, but rather than focusing on home affairs he was sent to Portugal to lead a British army in a desperate bid to stop Napoleon's seemingly invincible forces. By the autumn of 1810, Britain was one of the only countries still fighting the French emperor, but over the next five years Wellington led his men across Europe to a final triumph at Waterloo.

He is frequently portrayed as a strict disciplinarian who was both arrogant and aloof. "He was admired rather than loved, but he won battles," admits Snow. "He knew the importance of keeping his army well fed and he also understood the importance of winning the hearts and minds of local people. We hear this today when people talk about Iraq and Afghanistan which shows what a modern general Wellington was."

Snow's book draws on the first-hand accounts of his officers to paint a compelling portrait of the man behind the myth. "What I found exciting was discovering he was a much more complex character than he is often made out to be. He was the embodiment of the stiff upper lip but there were rare occasions when he let his guard down. After the siege of Badajoz, where more than 5,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded, he wept at the scale of the bloodshed, because he was terribly conscious of the cost of war and lost many friends during the course of the campaigns."

But although he was more humane than he is often made out to be, the conditions endured by most of his soldiers were truly awful. "Medication and sanitation were extremely primitive and the cure for a big musket wound was still to amputate because of the risk of infection. The chances of getting typhus or dysentery were very high and more people died from illness and disease than they did through gunshot, which is extraordinary."

He says that while Wellington enjoyed a glittering military career, his tenure as Prime Minster was less successful. "He wasn't a great Prime Minister it must be said. He was a supremely self-confident man who believed he was right and that there must be something wrong with anyone who questioned his orders. At his first Cabinet meeting in 1828, he is reported to have said: 'An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.' That was typical Wellington."

Snow himself is the son of a British army officer, but opted against following in his father's footsteps. "I think I've always been a bit of a rebel and I found it difficult obeying orders, particularly if I thought they were silly orders, or I disagreed with them. I would have definitely had a problem with Wellington," he says. "I like being in charge of my own decisions and that's not what happens in the army. But having said that, I hugely admire people who are in the forces and in a way I wish I had that sense of discipline and duty."

Instead, Snow found himself going to work for ITN in 1962. "I was looking for a job as a director because I wanted to be the next Cecil B. DeMille and direct feature films. But I ended up sub-editing news stories and became completely captivated by reporting and presenting news and never looked back."

He spent more than a decade as ITN's diplomatic and defence correspondent before becoming Newsnight's presenter in 1980, which he describes as his "dream" job. "It was a wonderful programme and it still is, you have 45 minutes of news and current affairs, in depth. It's been a hugely successful formula and it hasn't really changed since it started."

He went on to become an integral part of election nights and says one of his most memorable moments came in 1992. "All the polls were saying it was going to be a hung parliament and then suddenly the result from Basildon, one of the marginals, came in. I was expecting the swingometer to go red, but instead it turned blue and I said to David Dimbleby, 'there seems to be something wrong', but there wasn't and it soon became clear the Conservatives had won a majority."

It is this unpredictability, he says, that makes live TV so

rewarding. "You have to be able to think on your feet, but that's part of the challenge and you need to know what you're talking about. So

if the computer breaks down, and the audience love it when that happens, you're able to carry on."

Snow was awarded a CBE in 2006 for his services to broadcasting and while the buzz of being a journalist is still there, these days he concentrates on making documentaries rather than reporting from the frontline.

"I have reported from war zones and battlefields throughout my career as events happened. So to be able to look back at the Falklands conflict and the first Gulf War with all the data and knowledge that hindsight brings, is a huge bonus, because it allows you to tell the true story."

Despite this he doesn't regard himself as a historian. "I see myself as a journalist who writes about history. I like to tell a story, which is what drew me towards Wellington, because his story is an extraordinary one."

It's also one he feels shouldn't be forgotten. "There is an overwhelming sense nowadays of the school curriculum being full of the First and Second World Wars, which increasingly overshadows what Wellington and his soldiers did 200 years ago, even though it was no less crucial to our national survival."

Peter Snow will be appearing on Saturday October 9, at Kings Hall, Ilkley. For ticket information visit www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org. uk or call 01943 816 714.

To order a copy of To War With Wellington – From the Peninsula to Waterloo (John Murray, 25) from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepostbookshop.co.

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