Dimensions
170 x 240 x 20mm
It may come as some surprise that in such a popular area of military history there is no book that focuses on the experience of the Victorian soldier - from recruitment to embarkation, fighting and perhaps returning, perhaps dying - in his own words. Dr Manning's meticulous research in primary sources gives the lie to the received image of the disciplined, redcoated campaigner of Victorian art and literature: for one thing, by the time he arrived at his destination, the coat would have been in rags. The distances covered on march were unbelievable, through desert and disease-ravaged swamp.