Gordon Corrigan – författare

The Duke of Wellington, the most successful of British commanders, set a standard by which all subsequent British generals have been measured. His defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 crowned a reputation first won in India at Assaye and then confirmed during the Peninsular War, where he followed up his defence of Portugal by expelling the French from Spain. Gordon Corrigan, himself an ex-soldier, examines his claims to greatness. Wellington was in many ways the first modern general, combining a mastery of logistics with an ability to communicate and inspire. He had to contend not only with enemy armies but also with his political masters and an often sceptical public at home.

The true story of how Britain won the First World War.

The popular view of the First World War remains that of BLACKADDER: incompetent generals sending brave soldiers to their deaths. Alan Clark quoted a German general''s remark that the British soldiers were ''lions led by donkeys''. But he made it up.

Indeed, many established ''facts'' about 1914-18 turn out to be myths woven in the 1960s by young historians on the make. Gordon Corrigan''s brilliant, witty history reveals how out of touch we have become with the soldiers of 1914-18. They simply would not recognize the way their generation is depicted on TV or in Pat Barker''s novels.

Laced with dry humour, this will overturn everything you thought you knew about Britain and the First World War. Gordon Corrigan reveals how the British embraced technology, and developed the weapons and tactics to break through the enemy trenches.

Why the British forces fought so badly in World War II and who was to blameGordon Corrigan''s Mud, Blood and Poppycock overturned the myths that surround the First World War. Now he challenges our assumptions about the Second World War in this brilliant, caustic narrative that exposes just how close Britain came to losing. He reveals how Winston Churchill bears a heavy responsibility for the state of our forces in 1939, and how his interference in military operations caused a string of disasters. The reputations of some of our most famous generals are also overturned: above all, Montgomery, whose post-war stature owes more to his skill with a pen than talent for command. But this is not just a story of personalities. Gordon Corrigan investigates how the British, who had the biggest and best army in the world in 1918, managed to forget everything they had learned in just twenty years. The British invented the tank, but in 1940 it was the Germans who showed the world how to use them. After we avoided defeat, but the slimmest of margins, it was a very long haul to defeat Hitler''s army, and one in which the Russians would ultimately bear the heaviest burden.