The Little Field Marshal : A Life of Sir John French
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Book Description
Sir John French is a figure who has always aroused controversy. Douglas Haig despised him, while Churchill thought his leadership qualities unsurpassed. Despite being the most capable cavalry leader of his generation, posterity has judged him an unfeeling butcher, responsible for more deaths in the first two hours of the battle of Loos than all the casualties on both sides in the 1944 D-Day landings. But there was another side to French, which is only revealed in his private papers. If his public life was controversial, his private life was positively scandalous: he courted dismissal after an affair with a fellow officer's wife, and had a string of beautiful and well-connected mistresses. And far from being the unfeeling butcher of popular myth, he was personally tormented by what he termed 'glory and her twin sister murder'. The lengthening casualty lists on the Western Front filled him with despair, as he envisaged his room at GHQ filled with the 'silent army' of the dead. In the writing of this book, the first and only comprehensive biography of the Field Marshal, Richard Holmes was granted unrestricted access to Sir John French's private papers. His research has produced a portrait of a complex man, at the heart of some of the most important military events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
About the Author
Richard Holmes is Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Royal Military College of Science. For many years he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before leaving for a spell of full-time military service. He has presented several BBC TV series, including War Walks and The Western Front, and wrote the accompanying books.
The Little Field Marshal: A Life of Sir John French,Richard Holmes,Weidenfeld & Nicolson,0297846140,1852-1925,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography / Autobiography,Biography/Autobiography,Earl of Ypres,,French, John Denton Pinkstone,,Great Britain,Marshals,Military,Modern - 20th Century,Biography & Autobiography / Military,STUDY NOTES - SparkNotes
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