Three Fruitcakes

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

If you want to know something about the idiocy and hilarity of war, when to stage a Guards regimental photograph in the bandit country of South Armagh (5.30 in the morning), why the Americans are losing their classically asymmetrical war in Iraq, how John Simpson ‘liberated’ Kabul and why the stiff upper lip may be […]

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Hooray For Horatio

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

The bicentenary of Trafalgar has allowed authors, documentary-makers and journalists to dive back headlong into the colourful world of George III’s navy: rum, sodomy and the lash all right, but also the excitement of the pursuit of the French fleet to the point of its effective destruction at the battle itself, off Spain, on 21 […]

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The World’s Most Famous Failure

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

Is there no end to Scott? People have been banging on about him for ages. Was he a great man? Was he a stupid man? Imperial martyr or unimaginative martinet? Victim of freak weather conditions or agent of his own downfall? Back and forth the arguments have gone, hagiographers and revisionists taking their turn at […]

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RLF - March

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