Product Description

Lieutenant Malcolm Riall served as a signals officer with the West Yorkshires throughout the Boer War. This is based on his archive - a collection of letters, diaries and more than 1000 photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #246424 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

A photographic diary of colonial war
What makes this book so nice are the photographs. As well as telling an "ordinary soldier's" story instead of being from a generals point of view, the photos taken show how life really was on campaign in the Boer War - tiring, dusty and often boring! As the book is one soldier's story, it gives a good idea of what it must have actually been like to fight in a war at the start of the 20th century. The diary is linked together with bits of text outlining the broader history of the war and unravelling some of the writer's more coded statements about where he went and in what battles etc he was in. Okay, so there are only one or two battles, and certainly no strategic accounts of what the British Army was doing (the writer wouldn't have known these anyway), but the few skirmishes and battles described are shown in a realistic way, giving an idea of how it would have been to be there. Overall this is a very nice book, the pictures are great to look at, and it certainly is the story of 'one man's war'. If you want a general reading book on the Boer War, this probably isn't it, but if you want a more personal account, buy this book.