Charge!: The Interesting Bits of Military History - Tapa dura

'It's a great collection of really interesting titbits, anecdotes, drunken generals, circular boats, and a war allegedly started by a bit of pastry' * Birmingham Mail * WAR may be hell, but Justin Pollard in a new book, Charge!, has unearthed some funny and strange episodes in military history * Dover Express & Folkestone Herald * 'Even if this book can't eliminate all future military blunders, it will be invaluable for preparing witty after-dinner speeches' * Diplomat Magazine * 'A damn fine and mirthful read, especially those sections that - rightfully - give the rise to the perfidious French!' * Damien Lewis, bestselling author of Apache Dawn * 'Barmy Armies: tales of derring-do (and derring-don't)' * Independent * 'Another fusillade of facts, with some stirring, some farcical and some grisly tales from some of the odder crannies of military history . . . This will keep the dear old brigadier supplied with anecdotes for months' * Sunday Telegraph *

War brings out the very best and worst in people although, frankly, its usually the latter. But for all our thousands of years of practice at this most dangerous art there is precious little evidence that we're either outgrowing it or getting any good at it. It is an occupation filled with heroism, genius, hubris, idiocy and blind panic all bought on at least in part by large measures of astonishingly good and bad luck - and they're all here in Charge! This is not a book filled with battle diagrams swarming with arrows or 100,000 word descriptions of the tactical basis for the Pastry War. It is a book about the smaller tragedies and triumphs that actually go to make up the big picture - toilets that sink U-boats, unsporting attacks on Christmas day, armies that stop for tea, bombs on renegade balloons, drunk generals, blind kings, blind drunk generals, circular warships, and all the joy and misery that such things bring with them. And an interesting bit about the Pastry War.