Product Description

An exhilarating and uplifting account of the lives of sixteen 'warriors' from the last three centuries, hand-picked for their bravery or extraordinary military experience by the eminent military historian, author and ex-editor of the Daily Telegraph, Sir Max Hastings. Over the course of forty years of writing about war, Max Hastings has grown fascinated by outstanding deeds of derring-do on the battlefield (land, sea or air) -- and by their practitioners. He takes as his examples sixteen people from different nationalities in modern history -- including Napoleon's 'blessed fool' Baron Marcellin de Marbot (the model for Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard); Sir Harry Smith, whose Spanish wife Juana became his military companion on many a campaign in the early 19th-century; Lieutenant John Chard, an unassuming engineer who became the hero of Rorke's Drift in the Zulu wars; and Squadron Leader Guy Gibson, the 'dam buster' whose heroism in the skies of World War II earned him the nation's admiration, but few friends. Every army, in order to prevail on the battlefield, needs a certain number of people capable of courage beyond the norm. In this book Max Hastings investigates what this norm might be -- and how it has changed over the centuries. While celebrating feats of outstanding valour, he also throws a beady eye over the awarding of medals for gallantry -- and why it is that so often the most successful warriors rarely make the grade as leaders of men.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64896 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'With this collection, Hastings is back on home territory, where he can bring his unique blend of skills as war reporter, and social as well as military historian to bear!This is one of the best and most diverting of his shorter pieces' Evening Standard 'All (of the stories) are corking!opinions are stated firmly and with big bold swings of the pendulum. His virtues are clarity and decisiveness -- greatly to be admired when it comes to making clear, for the lay reader, roughly what is going on in the fiendishly complex and bloody engagements he describes.' Spectator 'A wonderfully eclectic selection!Hastings has written a marvellous book. Wry perceptive and engaging, it lays bare the curious mix of character traits -- good and bad -- that a successful warrior requires.' Sunday Telegraph 'His brisk prose has the qualities of his warriors: clear, decisive, forceful!"Warriors" will enthral everyone.' Daily Telegraph 'Brilliant!Hastings combines his consummate skill as a writer with passages of descriptive brilliance to provide a book for the ordinary citizen!He captures the commitment of the fighting servicemen and women!in language that is powerful yet eminently comprehensible. This is a book to entertain.' Sunday Times

Observer
'Free from gung-ho nonsense, Hastings writes with respect and insight.'

Independent on Sunday
'Bathurst…has opened a magic casement on to a lost world on the edge of living memory'

Customer Reviews

Interesting but questionably written
An interesting book giving potted biographies of a dozen or so individuals who performed acts of conspicuous gallantry.
The book, however, is marred by the author's irritating habit of interpolating his own judgements and opinions rather than leaving the reader to form his own conclusions from the facts as presented.

warriors
As usual this is another excellent book from Sir Max. Most interesting and very informative for all readers.When you you pick it up you don't want to put it down.Every chapter is all very well written and a great credit to the author,Will always be
ready any more books in the future.

An okay read - not his best in my view though
As mentioned, this book details the lives of various people who have left a mark on relatively recent battlefields in one way or another.

Whilst the content is interesting, I didn't find this book as engaging as some of the other works by the same author (such as Armageddon) - it just seemed a bit, well, dull in places.

At £7 it's worth a read, however I'm not sure I'd set aside a rainy afternoon especially for this one.