Weighing in at 5lb 4oz (2.3214kg), this magnificent book with its 625 pages, nearly 300 lovely illustrations and brilliant, but brilliant, maps must be the bargain of the season. It is the history of the oldest bit of our Army, the three regiments, now two, that make up the Household Cavalry, namely the Life Guards and Blues and Royals.
A horseman and serving soldier himself, a major-general no less, Barney White-Spunner really brings cavalry campaigning to life in a way that comes home to we horse-lovers.
Try this, it’s the night before the Battle of Waterloo: “… it continued to rain all night. There was no chance to bring up the rations or drinking water, and the men slept as best they could, their arms slipped through the reins of their fully saddled horses in the high standing corn…”
This book is just full of the sort of practical, fascinating, nuts-and-bolts detail that makes living pictures of the story being told. If you like history and horses, it’s for you.
Published by Macmillan (ISBN 140505574X)
