Non-Fiction Books

Although only formed in December 1992, The Light Dragoons look back to a history that began in the days of the first Jacobite rebellion. The 1922 reduction in the Army saw the amalgamation of four regiments of Hussars into the 13th/18th Hussars and the 15th/19th Hussars. Now they too have been amalgamated. Allan Mallinson, a former commanding officer of the 13th/18th Hussars, follows with clarity and dexterity the fortunes of The Light Dragoons' predecessors and describes the activities of the new regiment up to the minute. It reflects much of the last two hundred and seventy years of British history. No campaign of significance has been fought in that time without the participation of one or more of the Regiments. They gained fresh honors in both World Wars and, since 1945, have been fully involved in Britain's withdrawal from Empire, the confrontation of the Cold War and UN’s peacekeeping. The new Postscript gives the reader a classic account of what wars in Bosnia and Iraq have involved for the Regiment and the men who serve in it.

The definitive story of the British army from one of the UK's bestselling historical novelists. From the English Civil War to today's War on Terror: in this sweeping account of nearly 500 years of military history, former soldier Allan Mallinson looks at how the Army's dramatic past has made it one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today. He shows us the people and events that have shaped the army we know today: how Marlborough's momentous victory at Blenheim is linked to Wellington's at Waterloo; how the desperate fight at Rorke's Drift in 1879 underpinned the heroism of the airborne forces in Arnhem in 1944; and why Montgomery's momentous victory at El Alamein mattered long after the Second World War was over. This is the story of hard-won military experience. From the Army's birth at the battle of Edgehill in 1642 to our current conflict in Afghanistan, this is history at its most relevant -- and most dramatic. From the Hardcover edition.

In the run up to the centenary of the First World War comes a fascinating and revelatory new history of the origins of the war, of those first few crucial weeks of fighting, and of how Britain and its army fared. 'No part of the Great War compares in interest with its opening'’, wrote Churchill. ‘'The measured, silent drawing together of gigantic forces, the uncertainty of their movements and positions, the number of unknown and unknowable facts made the first collision a drama never surpassed... …in fact the War was decided in the first twenty days of fighting, and all that happened afterwards consisted in battles which, however formidable and devastating, were but desperate and vain appeals against the decision of fate.’' In this major new history, one of Britain's foremost military historians and defence experts tackles the origins -- and the opening first few weeks of fighting -- of what would become known as 'the war to end all wars'. Intensely researched and convincingly argued, Allan Mallinson explores and explains the grand strategic shift that occurred in the century before the war, the British Army’'s regeneration after its drubbings in its fight against the Boer in South Africa, its almost calamitous experience of the first twenty days’ fighting in Flanders to the point at which the British Expeditionary Force -- the 'Old Contemptibles' -- took up the pick and the spade in the middle of September 1914. For it was then that the war changed from one of rapid and brutal movement into the now familiar image of the trenches and the coming of the Territorials, Kitchener'’s '‘Pals'’, and ultimately the conscripts and of course the poets. And with them, that terrible sense of the pity and of the futility. Mallinson brings his experience as a professional soldier to bear on the individuals, circumstances and events and the result is a vivid, compelling new history of the beginnings of the Great War that speculates -- tantalizingly -- on what might have been.

One of the great questions in the ongoing discussions and debate about World War I is why winning took so long and exacted so appalling a human cost. In this major new history, Allan Mallinson provides answers that are disturbing as well as controversial, and have a contemporary resonance. He disputes the growing consensus among historians that British generals were not to blame for the losses—that, given the magnitude of their task, they did as well anyone could have. He takes issue with the popular view that the "amateur" opinions on strategy of politicians such as Lloyd George and, especially, Winston Churchill, prolonged the war and increased the death toll. On the contrary, he argues, even before the war began Churchill had a far more realistic, intelligent, and humane grasp of strategy than any of the admirals or generals, while very few senior officers were up to the intellectual challenge of waging war on this scale. Mallinson argues that from day one of the war Britain was wrong-footed by absurdly faulty French military doctrine and paid, as a result, an unnecessarily high price in casualties. He shows that Lloyd George understood only too well the catastrophically dysfunctional condition of military policy-making and struggled against the weight of military opposition to fix it. And he asserts that both the British and the French failed to appreciate what the Americans’ contribution to victory could be and, after the war, to acknowledge fully what it had actually been.

‘Mallinson . . . combines the authority of a soldier-turned-military historian with the imaginative touch of the historical novelist.’ Lawrence James, THE TIMES We remember months, because months have names, because they are linked to the seasons, and because they have their own character. Looking at the First World War month by month reveals its complexity while preserving a sense of time. From the opening shots to the signing of the armistice, the First World War lasted almost 52 months. It was fought on land, sea and in the air. It became industrial, and unrestricted: poison gas, aerial bombing of cities, and the sinking without warning of merchantmen and passenger ships by submarines. Casualties, military and civilian, probably exceeded 40 million. Four empires collapsed during the course of the war – the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman. The First World War is almost impossible to comprehend. Day-by-day narratives can be dizzying for the reader wanting to make sense of the conflict as a whole. Freer-flowing accounts, while helping to understand the broader trends and factors, can give less of a sense of the human dimension 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.”