Böcker av Allan Mallinson

One of our most distinguished military historians tells the story of six defining battles . . .Every battle is different. Each takes place in a different context - the war, the campaign, the weapons. However, battles across the centuries, whether fought with sticks and stones or advanced technology, have much in common. Fighting is, after all, an intensely human affair; human nature doesn't change. So why were battles fought as they were? What gave them their shape? Why did they go as they did: victory for one side, defeat for the other? In exploring six significant feats of arms - the war and campaign in which they each occurred, and the factors that determined their precise form and course - The Shape of Battle answers these fundamental questions about the waging of war.Hastings (1066) - everyone knows the date, but not, perhaps, the remarkable strategic background.Towton (1461) - the bloodiest battle to be fought on English soil. Waterloo (1815) - more written about in English than any other but rarely in its true context as the culminating battle in the longest war in 'modern' times.D-Day (1944) - a battle within a larger operation ('Overlord'), and the longest-planned and most complex offensive battle in history. Imjin River (1951) - this little known battle of the Korean War was the British Army's last large-scale defensive battle. Operation Panther's Claw (2009) - a battle that has yet to receive the official distinction of being one: an offensive conducted over six weeks with all the trappings of 21st-century warfare yet whose shape and face at times resembled the Middle Ages. The Shape of Battle is not a polemic, it doesn't try to argue a case. It lets the narratives - the battles - speak for themselves.

Following their successful invasion of Coorg in order to remove the state's deranged rajah, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is looking forward to a few months' respite for his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons, and his family.

Looking at the First World War month by month reveals its complexity while preserving a sense of time. The month is a more digestible gauge.Based on the Allan Mallinson's monthly commentaries in The Times throughout the centenary, Fight to the Finish is a new and original portrait of "The War to End War."

In India, relations are strained between the presidency of Madras and some of the neighbouring princely states. Having taken command of the action in Bristol to restore order after one of the bloodiest and most destructive riots in the nation's history, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is out of favour with the new government.

January 1830, and one of the hardest winters in memory ...And the prime minister, the Iron Duke, is resisting growing calls for parliamentary reform, provoking scenes of violent unrest in the countryside. Against this inflammable backdrop Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey, takes command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons.

One of the great questions in the ongoing discussions and debate about the First World War is why did winning take so long and exact so appalling a human cost? After all this was a fight that, we were told, would be over by Christmas. In this book, former professional soldier and author of 1914: Fight the Good Fight, provides the answers.

January 1829: George IV is on the throne, Wellington is England's prime-minister, and snow is falling thickly on the London streets as Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is summoned to the Horse Guards in the expectation of command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. But the benefits of long-term peace at home mean cuts in the army.

Edgehill, 1642: Surveying the disastrous scene in the aftermath of the first battle of the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell realizes that war can no longer be made in the old, feudal way: there has to be system and discipline, and therefore - eventually - a standing professional army.

Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons is urgently summoned to the Cape Colony when he learns that the Zulu warrior King Shaka is about to wage war. Soon Hervey, his old friend Eyre Somervile and their escort of dragoons and mounted rifles are riding north. When they arrive at Shaka's kraal it is a horrifying place.

It is 1827: Britain and the Mediterranean Captain Sir Laughton Peto, engaged to Matthew Hervey's sister, is sailing his line-of-battle ship towards Navarino Bay. All is set fair for Matthew Hervey's marriage to Lady Lankester, and his return to active duty at the Cape. But trouble lies ahead as familial commitments clash with affairs of the heart.

It is 1827, and Matthew Hervey is on the look out for a new posting. He soon finds one in the Cape Colonies, where there is need of a man to re-organise the local forces, and in particular to form a new company of horse. As Hervey and his greenhorn troops are plunged into a battle, death is only a heartbeat away.

It's 1826, and Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons is a prisoner of the Spanish, incarcerated in the fortress of Badajoz. As he plans his escape, his thoughts return to the year 1812 when he was a cornet in Wellington's Peninsula Army. While Hervey paces his prison cell, and re-lives the bloodshed of battles past, friends rush to his aid.

Captain Matthew Hervey is suffering the effects of unrest within his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. Their new commanding officer - wealthy, arrogant and cruel - has taken an immediate dislike to him. Somehow, Hervey must earn promotion while retaining his integrity and the loyalty of his men.

As war against Bonaparte rages to its bloody end upon the field of Waterloo, a young officer goes about his duty in the ranks of Wellington's army. He is Cornet Matthew Hervey of 6th Light Dragoons. Cornet Hervey faces decisions, both military and romantic, which will change the course of his life, and possibly the outcome of Waterloo.

Fresh from the field of Waterloo, Matthew Hervey is dispatched on a mission of the secrecy. Leaving behind his fiancee, Lady Henrietta Lindsey, he must journey to India, an exotic land that will test his mettle to the very limit.

Matthew Hervey joins a party of officers sent to lend support to Portugese regent. But Peninsula is a place redolent with memories. The French had forced British army into retreat until, under leadership of Sir John Moore, they made a defiant stand at Corunna. As he prepares for battle, Hervey finds himself confronting ghosts from his past.

Matthew Hervey is charged with raising a new troop, and organising transport for India - for he, his men and their horses are to set sail with immediate effect. What Hervey and his soldiers cannot know is that in India they will face a trial for which they are ill prepared. A large number of Burmese war-boats are assembled near Chittagong.

Matthew Hervey and the 6th Light Dragoons are stationed in India, where conflagration looks set to flair. The usurper prince, Durjan Sal, has taken refuge in the infamous fortress of Bhurtpore. Hot and dangerous work lies ahead for Matthew Hervey and his courageous troop who know their fortunes will be decided by the sabre's edge.