Not exactly light reading

Two recent reads of interest to the blog audience I think.

 

Firstly Charles Esdailes' exhaustive examination of the Peninsular War.  I say examination rather than account or story, as from a pure military history buffs viewpoint, Esdaile is rather skimping on the battles themselves.  Despite some 600 pages relatively few engagements are covered in more than a couple of pages, this rather is a book of grand strategy, politics, economics, social upheaval and bureaucracy. 

Not that this should be seen as a criticism.  If you want to read about the battles in Spain, or the specific organisation of units, hence ye to an Osprey book!  Rather this examines the context of the war with thorough, somewhat academic, reviews of the plans of all sides, their grand execution and impacts.  Whole chapters are devoted to the politics of the Spanish Junta, a prolonged debate on the purpose and effectiveness of Guerrilla's, and life in Josephian Madrid.

This is an invaluable read for those interested in the War in detail, but not a particularly engrossing one.  It took me many months to finish largely due to only being able to manage 5 or 6 pages at a time.  It's a dense, academic book, that at times manages to rise to the dizzying heights of being enthralling. 

At times, but not all times.

 

This is a book I was put on to by a Youtuber, having never heard of it before.  It is quite the discovery.

From the City, From the Plough, is fiction, but only just.  Author Alexander Baron leans heavily on his own experience and observations during the war to write what becomes a powerful account of the British experience in Normandy.  No slice of Daring Do this, and few cliches either, in a book that avoids the obvious and sentiment in an effort to really hit home with the brutal conclusion. 

Baron writes with an easy, poetic style, that in the first half of the book covers the training and waiting for action of an infantry regiment in the south of England, vignettes of army life are plentiful, alongside character sketches and insights on daily life.  So far it feels very safe, cosy at times, and terribly, terribly, British.  Characters help local farmers, after drill, court girls at the local dances, sneak off to London to gamble.  Their Colonel and Major worry about them, they fight, and fall in love.

Then the regiment goes to war and nothing is ever the same.

The final eighty pages of this short tome are utterly brutal, whilst holding a macabre beauty all their own.  The unit finds itself at the lead of an attack so well and clearly drawn from real life, that veterans of the battle were able to identify it and whom some of the characters in it were.  Before that there are yet more scenes, simply, poetically and more importantly, accurately drawn that do more than many better known works to epitomise the experience of battle.  Heroes are few, but cowards are fewer, it becomes rather a tale of the soldiers experience.  And how the choice to carry on is simply not there.

It is, incredibly affecting.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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