Book Reviews - David O. Morgan

This is something of a first.  Instead of reviewing the books I want to focus on the author.  David Morgan died in 2019 but left behind a significant body of work.

I first came across his book on Medieval Persia by chance last year when I was looking for books on the Arab Conquests.  Purchased second hand, the first edition was both a bargain and a delight.  With a clear, concise and approachable style the book dealt with all the rulers of post Arab Conquest Persia with aplomb.

Slingshot Review Article Now Avaialble

I've added a link to my latest book review to the articles page. It's a review of Stephen English's paperback "The Army of Alexander the Great" released by Pen & Sword in 2021.

The Arab Conquests

As regular readers will have noticed, I am busy building an Arab Conquest army for Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  However, not all of this project involves a paintbrush.  I've also taken the opportunity to read a few books about the period.  I knew next to nothing when I started.

So here are the four main history books that got me started; complete with brief, one paragraph type, reviews.  Since this post was written, I've found a fifth book, and it is very different to the other four.

They are listed in my recommended reading order.

18 mm ACW Confederate Generals

I've recently finished John Keegan's 2010 History of the American Civil War (ACW) which I picked up from one of my local charity shops.

I thoroughly enjoyed his approach once I'd got used to his somewhat tortured prose style. When I'd finished the book I felt I had a good grip on how the war was fought and it's unique characteristics. The only thing I found confusing was the geography but I sorted that by downloading a blank map from the American Battlefield Trust.

Needless to say the book inspired me to buy some figures. During my annual visit to Britcon (Manchester UK) I bought a partial pack of Confederate generals, there's a missing fourth figure, but they were cheap enough and I only wanted them to paint not lead an army.

Believe it or not, these are the first AB figures I have ever painted. They have such a stellar reputation I expected them to be joy to paint.

Book Shop Launched

If you look above this post, on the blog itself not the RSS feed, you'll see that the menu bar has a new item entitled Bookshop.

My intention is to feature my commercial books and publishing projects.  At the moment there are just two entries: the Poleaxed Sourcebooks for the War of the Roses and the Hobilar Archive CD.

Transylvanian TYW Flag - Free Samples

At the end of September I posted an article about the above. I was very pleased to get a reasonably "historical" flag for my Transylvanian ally general so quickly.

At the end of October I placed an order with Donnington to bulk out the samples I'd bought to a fully fledged allied contingent. The parcel arrived two days ago and the first thing I did was clean up the figure to bear the Transylvanian flag. This meant I had to decide what to do about the flag.

My first plan was to paint the design by hand using a black and white printed version as a guide. I don't own a colour printer. My second plan was to get some flags printed at the local copy shop. This afternoon it was time for plan two. After a phone call, an email and a quick walk round the corner to the copy shop, I had more Transylvanian flags than I knew what to do with. All for a quid!

Transylvanian TYW Flag

Regular readers may have spotted that I’m contemplating painting a Transylvanian ally for use with an Early German Protestant army for the Thirty Years War (TYW).

I’m so keen on this mini-project I’ve already painted all the samples I bought at Britcon and I’ve moved on to considering my next purchase(s).  Amongst these will be the figures for a general and his entourage.  Obviously, aside from a white horse, he needs a suitable standard so I began looking for a suitable image.  I only wanted an idea as I usually paint my flags by hand.

As it turned out Wikipedia was all I needed.  An article on the Translylvanian coat of arms provided a concise history of the arms during the period and some useful pictures.  Sadly, all the pictures were before 1597 or after 1665; nothing during theTYW.  There was however a brief description of the arms in between.

Tobruk–William F Buckingham (2008) Update

This post has under gone a significant update following a reply from the publisher.

Read the update ...

Tobruk–William F Buckingham (2008)

This book was meant to form part of my Christmas reading but I gave in and started it early.  In some ways I wish I hadn’t.  I’m just over one third of the way through the book and it’s really annoying me.

Miniature Wargames Review Article Now Available

I've added a link to my latest Miniature Wargames review to the articles page. It's a review of the latest book from Pen & Sword about the Mongols:

"When I was told I was going to receive a review copy of this book I must confess I was really pleased.  The Mongols have always fascinated me and I have spent many happy hours building Mongol armies.   I was curious to see what, if anything, new would be revealed in this volume from Chris Peers.

When the book arrived I was immediately struck by how well organised it was.  The inclusion of a full time line, a genealogy for Genghis Khan’s family, and a who’s who’s in thirteenth century Mongolia ensured I would be using the book for reference in the future.

All books on the Mongols suffer from a lack of contemporary sources and the author generally does a good job in explaining how this paucity limits what can be said with certainty"

Review of Genghis Khan And The Mongol War Machine by Chris Peers, Miniature Wargames, 389, 60-61. (original article)

Comments always welcome.

Recent Books - Various

More second hand reading finds:



Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "The Full Monty" is a whopping 780 pages excluding appendices yet it is extremely well written and can be read at pace as it builds up a fascinating picture of Monty, how he brought about the victory at El Alamein and why he had to do what he did.  9/10. Amazon UK
• "Conquest" fails to overcome the detail that bedevils so much recent medieval history because the narrative gets lost in the endless stream of castles captured and marches made, plus the book is frequently let down by the lack of a good map. 5/10. Amazon UK

Recent Books - Alamein

Here's the latest additions to my library:



Unusually for me these were purchased new and were read one after the other in very short order.  There was a distinct possibility of "desert overdose" but I found both good reads.  Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "Alamein: War Without Hate" offers an engrossing "journalistic narrative" to the whole desert campaign with clear, descriptive maps which I read at real pace.  9/10
  
• "Pendulum Of War: Three Battles at El Alamein " is a tactically detailed account covering just the battles around El Alamein which is very readable and pacey but it occasionally gets bogged down in the complexities of the campaign and sometimes the maps don't really help. 8/10

I'll be keeping these as they will both be re-read at some point in the future.

Recent Books

I started this year reading books on an old theme: the Western Desert in WWII. As it turned out I read two very different books. Panzer Commander covers far more than war in the desert.



Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "Montgomery And Alamein" offers a pro-Montgomery perspective (see others) and is at its best when dealing with Montgomery's early years and the build up to the battle, however it gets a bit dry (with some tortured use of tense) when dealing with the battle itself. 7/10
• "Panzer Commander" is very readable with a relaxed writing style which sparkles when recounting specific events (and anecdotes) fully capturing the triumph of discipline over the desperation and frustration experienced by the officers of the Wehrmacht from 1942 onwards. 9/10

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. To arrange this just email me using the contact form in the page footer.

Recent Books

I've mainly been reading non-fiction for the last few weeks and I finally got round to yet more of the my "to be read sometime" pile. Since June I have read:



Here are my one sentence reviews:

1. "The Longest Siege" reads very well indeed covering the encirclement as well as the siege were the author never spurns an opportunity to praise the fighting prowess of the Australians. 7/10.
2. "Rifles" uses an interesting literary device to provide a wonderful book on the Napoleonic wars painting a vivid picture of how the wars were fought. 9/10.
3. "The Desert Generals" is the revised edition from 1983 were the the author provides further evidence for his devastating 1960 critique of the British campaign in North Africa and Montgomery in particular. 10/10.

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. To arrange this just email me using the contact form in the page footer.

Indo-Persian Armour - Photo Resource

I've been following a very useful board on Pinterest:

The term "Indo-Persian armor" includes armor from Persia, Ottoman Empire, India and other nearby countries made in the Indo-Persian style. In the past terms such as "Eastern", "Oriental", "Islamic" have been used to differentiate between this type of armor and European armor types. "Indo-Persian" includes non Muslim cultures such as Hindu, Sikh and Christian use of this type of armor. Nearly identical armors can have different names depending of the country/culture of use.

Indo-Persian armour - pinterest board.

Plus there's another I've just spotted and will be following from today:

Prints reflecting the people, culture, clothing, weapons and armor of the Ottoman Empire, Persia, India and related areas. The term "Indo-Persian" includes Persia, Ottoman Empire, India and other nearby countries. In the past terms such as "Eastern", "Oriental", "Islamic" have been used to differentiate between these types of prints and prints from other regions . "Indo-Persian" includes non Muslim cultures such as Hindu, Sikh and Christian.

Indo-Persian prints - pinterest board.

 I always find resources like these help inspire my painting, especially when I get painter's block. I hope they help you.

Muslim Tents

I've had a free print subscription to Saudi Aramco World for quite a few years now. It often contains articles of historical interest and they are always lavishly illustrated in full colour.

Anyway to the point of this post. I was perusing my back issues prior to a clear out when I came across a real gem of an article from 2010 about tents in the Muslim world. I'd set it aside for future reference and I'm glad I've re-discovered it: in the next few months I will be making a start on the baggage for my Timuird / Persian / Moghul army.

If you too need inspiration it's well worth bookmarking the article. There's also a full archive online where you can download pdfs to your hearts content. Highly recommended.

Ancient History, Poor Information, And The Internet

Jona Lendering runs a truly special web site called Livius full of great articles about ancient history.  In 2010 he was awarded a prize for popularising ancient history by the Dutch National Research School of Classicists (Oikos). 

He recently published his acceptance speech consisting of 14 and a half points focusing on the above.  Yes I know, fourteen and a half points!  Despite this whimsy it is a serious and well thought out piece that every ancient wargamer should read. It will change the way you read history books.

If you like the piece, and his approach, may I suggest you also read his list of common errors in Ancient History.

Nafziger Collection Now In The Public Domain

George Nafziger has donated his well respected Collection to the Combined Arms Research Library (CARL).  CARL is part of the US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA

Battle Of Bosworth :: New Location

I was drawn to an article in today’s Daily Telegraph because it dealt with one of my favourite periods in history: the Wars of the Roses.  It began:

“For hundreds of years history followers have visited Ambion Hill in Leicestershire, believing it to be the site of the Battle of Bosworth ...”

and then reveals that:

“… after an extensive three-year archaeological survey, experts now believe that the proper site was a mile away.”

Wargamers’ Myths :: Paces

Regular readers will know that I play wargames using DBMM written by Phil Barker.  What you may not know is that he’s recently issued a set of draft clarifications.  This has initiated a high volume of debate and a certain amount of uproar on the DBMMlist; what a surprise.  Now everything seems to be the subject for debate not just the proposed changes.  People have been lobbying for all sorts, changes, clarifications, and simplifications, left right and centre.