Author:Allan Mallinson
Edgehill, 1642: Surveyingthe disastrous scene in the aftermath of the first battle of the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell realizes that war can no longer be made in the old, feudal way: there has to be system and discipline, and therefore - eventually - a standing professional army.
From the 'New Model Army' of Cromwell's distant vision, former soldier Allan Mallinson shows us the people and events that have shaped the army we know today. How Marlborough's momentous victory at Blenheim is linked to Wellington's at Waterloo; how the desperate fight at Rorke's Drift in 1879 underpinned the heroism of the airborne forces at Arnhem in 1944; and why Montgomery's momentous victory at El Alamein mattered long after the Second World War was over.
From the Army's origins at the battle of Edgehill to our current conflict in Afghanistan, this is history at its most relevant - and most dramatic.
Fascinating... clear and concise... important. It is hard to see this book being bettered in the near future
—— Simon Heffer , DAILY TELEGRAPHI learned a lot
—— Jeremy Paxman , OBSERVERThis is no mere paperback edition of Mallinson's acclaimed 2009 hardback. He presents a revised and updated version that no self-respecting defense commentator can risk being without
—— THE TIMESA compelling history of the British Army
—— Emmanuelle Smith , FTMallinson is surely right to stress the one enduring quality of the British Army: 'operational resilience'
—— Saul David , SPECTATORPrecise and profound
—— THE TIMESLucid, absorbing
—— DAILY EXPRESSThe numerous fans of her Aristocrats (in which number I include myself) will not be disappointed: here is the same judicious mixture of intimacy and scholarship
—— Antonia Fraser , Sunday TimesA Royal Affair is an entertaining tale ...Tillyard's account of the brothers is heroic...[she] tells this astonishing tale with bravura
—— John de Falbe , Daily TelegraphShe has returned to what she knows-and does-best, teasing out the bonds of love, hate and pretend indifference that bind siblings, no matter what their historical pedigree, into a cat's cradle of consequence
—— EconomistThe story is brilliantly told. In its descriptive flourishes it is sometimes fearlessly novelistic, yet it travels long distances for scholarly scruples
—— John Mullan , Times Literary Supplement