Hugh McManners

The "oral history" approach works well here. The first Gulf War has always been a tricky war to make sense of from the perspective of the average UK voter. This comprehensive collection of tales from soldiers and officers and politicians gives an intimate and immediate impression of the reality for those British people who fought the war, or who were politically advocating it.

Oral histories work very well as a medium for writing about war. They remind you that war is chaotic, that it draws show more hundreds of thousands of people into its maw, and that there will never be any single authoritative history on something so complex. This is particularly true of the Gulf War, which was politically ambiguous and poorly reported, being the first modern "media-managed" conflict.

Good stuff. An essential companion to any straightforward historical account. More than once have I read something elsewhere, perhaps a sweeping statement from a former cabinet minister or a confident proclamation from a general, and then been able to reflect that it couldn't possibly be quite true - purely having read this. show less

I learned some brilliantly simple tactics just from my first few minutes of skimming this book. Despite its relatively brief length, it is crammed with survival techniques. For example, just attach a small, fluffy feather and a rose hip (as a floater) to fishing line for an instant lure. As with all DK books, this one delivers. Too bad it's on the short side.

I purchased this to add to my box of emergency supplies. While it contains useful information, over all, this is not helpful. It assumes too much prior knowledge on the mechanics of survival - like how to actually use a knife or tie knots. The bit about edible versus inedible plants was useless. There wasn't enough information to actually determine what one could or couldn't eat. The illustrations and such were good, but they often skipped steps or assumed the reader already knew how to get show more from A to B. I will still add this book to the box, but I will need to purchase something else to be supplement as this one is not going as helpful as I wanted. show less

Absolutely excellent book on the effects of war on individual soldiers. Authoritative and convincing.