Mark Urban has won praise in the past for Rifles, Fusiliers and Big Boy's Rules. Here he turns his attention to 10 British Generals who he considers to have changed World history. What you get are essentially 10 mini-biographies ranging throughout British history from George Monck, restorer of the monarchy in 1660 and was, in the words of Samuel Pepys: "The heaviest man in the World, but stout and loyal to his country" to that of Montgomery, created Viscount of Alamein after his stunning success in the Western Desert in WW2. Also including such luminaries as Marlbrorough, Wellington, Kitchener and Allenby this is a brisk jog through 313 pages and 500 or so years.
Each biography is however perfectly formed, explaining in some detail exactly what, to Urban's mind, makes each candidate deserving of such a lofty approval. Contained in each is a brief resume of each career before they came to prominence, the events which led to them being so and the results both for them and for their country.
It is perhaps a little disingenuous to refer to them all as having gone so far as to change the world since Monck and the Duke of York only really had a permanent impression on this country; but I suppose "8 Comanders who shaped the World and 2 who shaped Britain" would have been a little unwieldy for a title. Not quite as grand or attention-grabbing for sure.
The mark of the consummate researcher is throughout this book, which is not really a surprise since Urban is a former Defence correspondant and Diplomatic Editor. Two fields of study that are very well suited to each other, being in effect two mirrors for one subject. This ability to read events in seperate ways means that Urban is probably the perfect choice to author such a book, his expertise is not merely one sided but in many cases sparks off each other to give interesting conclusions.
6 out of 10
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