To War with Wellington by Peter Snow (John Murray, £9.99) (From The Northern Echo)

To War with Wellington by Peter Snow (John Murray, £9.99)

2:39pm Wednesday 6th July 2011 in Non-Fiction By Steve Craggs

WELLINGTON’S march from the coast of Portugal to victory at Waterloo is one of the greatest military achievements in British history, but the great hero had many smaller heroes (both officers and men) serving under him.

It is they and their achievements upon which Snow concentrates, and he draws heavily upon the soldiers’ diaries and letters to put us in the picture.

And what a picture! There is glory, of course, but there is also the true horror of war shown in the primitive medical conditions, the savagery of the looting and raping and the orgies of destruction fuelled by drunkenness.

It beats anything that Bernard Cornwell has produced in the Sharpe series of novels.