Yet another of my Christmas book presents, this is a reprint of an original account from 1827. The book is anonymous which is a great pity. The author presented, at the time, the first realistic portrait of the Peninsula war and life in the British army of the era, warts and all. When first published the book was reviewed critically because of the authors honest accounts of the hardship endured by the soldiers and the questionable decisions of his superiors. The introduction by the editor actually questions if the book was in fact ahead of its time in attempting to give an accurate account of war in the 1800's.
All that said this book is highly recommended as a first rate account of a soldiers life during Wellington's Peninsular campaign. Told from the perspective of a private soldier, there is little about the actual battles beyond that which any individual soldier would have seen. However it does give an excellent idea of the life of a private soldier which was brutal to say the least, in fact it's a wonder anyone survived not just the fighting but the living conditions themselves. In that sense the author mentions that of 600 men who left barracks in 1810 only 75 returned in 1814, the period covered by the book.
This is definitely the book for you if you are interested, not in an overarching campaign history, but life as a British soldier in the Peninsula campaign.
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