From the English Civil War to today's War on Terror: in this sweeping account of nearly 500 years of military history, former soldier Allan Mallinson looks at how the Army's dramatic past has made it one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today.
He 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 in Arnhem in 1944; and why Montgomery's momentous victory at El Alamein mattered long after the Second World War was over.
This is the story of hard-won military experience. From the Army's birth at the battle of Edgehill in 1642 to our current conflict in Afghanistan, this is history at its most relevant - and most dramatic.
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Reviews:
This is what Michael Tillotson writes of the new paperback in The Times:
This is no mere paperback edition of Mallinson’s acclaimed 2009 hardback. He presents a revised and updated version that no selfrespecting defence commentator can risk being without.
The chapters from the English Civil War to the onset of the 1982 Falklands conflict stand on the detail of his research and concisely argued opinions, about which debate will always circle; 400 years is a long time.
On the Falklands he is wary of the still-raw nerve of two Foot Guards battalions chosen for the task force instead of others “more combat ready”. 1st Battalion Welsh Guards had just completed “Spearhead”, so were as combat ready as they come. 2nd Battalion Scots Guards owed their choice to expediency; “elitism” was not a factor.
Mallinson addresses the impact of the Saville Inquiry Report on “Bloody Sunday” with greater frankness than General Sir Mike Jackson, Head of the Army at the time of publication and with 1 Para on that awful day. “The Prime Minister made a fulsome apology and I join him in so doing,” Jackson said. Mallinson points to the convenient ambiguity of “fulsome” and recognises that the Paras “didn’t do restraint”, at least not very well.
Mallinson is a former insider with hands-on experience of how the MoD is supposed to work. Today, his range of policymaking contacts is too valuable to him to risk compromise by publication of any headline-seeking tosh.
His is an ongoing enterprise. From a sound grasp of history he projects worrying thoughts for the future. As he remarks: “An Army long in the making, which yet remains very much a work in progress.”
"It is hard to think of anyone better qualified to write this book than Allan Mallinson. He has been both an infanteer and a cavalryman. He has written a series of beautifully crafted novels about the Army after the Napoleonic wars and he is one of the most acute commentators on the problems its heirs face today... This is an important book, because it shows how history has not just shaped the Army, its traditions and its ethos, but also how it has formed British strategy, for better and for worse."
"A romantic history that stirs the soul."
"It is hard to see this book being bettered in the near future."
"Whether he is unpicking the close stitching of a battle or lyricising the hero of the book, the common soldier, his touch and judgment are compelling."
"Mallinson is surely right to stress the one enduring quality of the British Army: 'operational resilience'."
"Allan Mallinson – himself a soldier for 35 years – makes the transition from historical fiction to military history with ease and delivers a smooth narrative across a considerable canvas.
The author of the Hervey novels takes as his starting point the New Model Army, the professional soldiers fighting for Parliament during the civil war. From there he leads us through the major campaigns and generals of the following centuries detailing how each shaped the army.
He is light-footed and thorough all the way through two world wars and right up to the most recent conflicts in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.
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"His illustrations are strikingly good... easy for non-soldiers to follow... covers a great deal of ground accurately... an admirable introduction to an always controversial subject."
"lucid, absorbing...Mallinson combines a professional’s feel for his subject with a populist touch."
"thought-provoking and endlessly entertaining history"... " a romantic history, perhaps even unfashionable, and it's all the better for being just that."
"Allan Mallinson is particularly good at describing battles, and he manages to make even the most complicated understandable and exciting... We need more books like this, which explain how the army works to a population that has become increasingly divorced from the realities of what it means to be a soldier, and at a time when military operations are once again determining the shape of our world."
"An extremely readable book that offers a shrewd and confident account of the army’s history."
"A compelling history of the British Army ..."