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.

Muskets & Springfields (ACW)

In 2020 I collaborated with Nigel Emsen on his ACW rules Rebels & Yankees.  Mainly, I was indulging my penchant for rules editing and table tweaking.

In the intervening years, Nigel has proved to be a constant source of innovation.  His output is prodigious and he now has quite a portfolio on Wargame Vault.  It's a mixture of free and "pay what you want" downloads covering many periods.  It is well worth a look.

New rules
His latest project is a commercial set of scale agnostic, grid based ACW rules: "Muskets & Springfields". It was published earlier this month and was launched last weekend at Salute 50.  

I'm pleased to say that I made a small contribution to the finished book: a few of my painted 15 mm ACW figures feature amongst the text.  You can see the originals here.  I'm looking forward to receiving my copy later this week.

The rules are currently available with £5.00 off the £25.00 RRP, and free delivery, from the Helion website.

Read Nigel's introductory & design notes.

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.

Book Reviews - Western Desert 1941-42

It's been a while since I posted a book review.  Over four years in fact.  Not that I've stopped reading or buying books.  It's more that I've been reading mainly fiction and the non-fiction books I have read haven't really inspired me.  Until now.

These continue my fascination with the Western Desert during WWII.  My reading list is quite lengthy; so long that that I've reached the point where I'm looking for something a little different.

Articles Page Update

The majority of my published articles now have epub versions to download alongside the pdf versions. 

The epub files should be useful to those of you who have a dedicated ereader or an ereader app on your phone or tablet.  They can also be easily read online in a browser if you have the right extension installed.

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.

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 in the Osprey Warrior series about the medieval Mamluk 'Askari:

"I was pleased to receive a copy of this book to review. I am in the middle of building a 15 mm Islamic Persian army and have found the arms and armour of the region in the late medieval period both entrancing and confusing in equal measure so a new book was most welcome.

This slim volume is the latest from both Osprey and David Nicolle in the standard Warrior format. The book contains nine short sections including all those you would expect from the format such as introduction; recruitment; and appearance and equipment etc. The text is well supported by a handy, and much needed, glossary and an index."

Review of Mamluk 'Askari 1250-1517 by David Nicolle, Miniature Wargames, 387, 62.

Comments always welcome.

Recent Books - WWII Western Desert

Continuing my growing fixation with the Western Desert, I recently completed reading Barrie Pitt's "Crucible of War" trilogy. I read both volumes I & II back to back after I was lent a BCA combined edition by a friend.



I was pleased to get my hands on the first two volumes as I enjoyed reading the final volume

Here's my one sentence review:

• "Wavell's Command" and "Auchinleck's Command" offer a good overview of the first four legs of the Bengahzi Handicap, with an especially clear and detailed account of Churchill & Eden's decision to weaken the Western Desert Force to bolster Greece, however, as before it gets a bit dry (with some tortured use of tense) when dealing with the battles. 8/10

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've just finished some heavyweight reading.  The two books below cover very different periods but share the same aim of producing readable, narrative history:



Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "1812" offers a beautifully readable version of the famous campaign of 1812 and thoroughly deserves the plaudits heaped on it by others not least by avoiding the pitfalls so common in military history of this period. 10 /10
• "All Hell Let Loose" is also very readable offering a critical, yet dynamic, overview of such a vast topic apparently with ease bolstered with an excellent selection of very apposite statistics, stories and quotes from all sides. 9/10

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. Postage will be £3.25 within the UK. To arrange this just email me using the contact form in the page footer.

Books Reviewed

I've written reviews for the following for Miniature Wargames:



Both highly recommended but I can't say more until the reviews have been published when I will add links to the articles page.

The 'Askari review should have been published by now but some how it never reached Henry at Miniature Wargames.

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.

The Blog Survey Results

To begin I'd like to thank every reader who took the time to complete the survey I ran to mark my 300th post. Without you this article would not have been possible.

When I checked, I was surprised to see that I've been running this blog for seven years. As far as the Internet is concerned this is a long time. It's more than enough time for disruptive changes in technology and resultant changes in reader habits. Most notably the time has seen the rise of Twitter and the rise and fall of RSS feeds as ways of staying in touch. So in addition to general feedback I asked a few questions about the techniques people use to follow the blog.

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.

Miniature Wargames Article Now Available

As usual I've added a link to my latest Miniature Wargames article to the articles page. It's all about competition wargaming:

"Competition wargamers! There's quite a few of these about judging by the number of local, national and international tournaments organised each year.

Now some people love competing others loathe it, but competition wargaming remains an established and vibrant part of our hobby.

What I would like to do in this article is look at one small part of the UK competition scene and draw out some long term trends which I hope will be of general interest but before that I would like to say a little about how and why I started to enter competitions."

Competing Views, Miniature Wargames, 374, 43-46

Plus, as the ultimate vanity project, I am considering producing a collection of my published articles in ebook format. Please leave a comment if you'd be interested. To that end I've been playing with Sigil and have converted this article to an ebook for you to download.

Recent Books

It's been a while since I covered my reading habits mainly because I've been reading novels but here's three history books that I can heartily recommend:



For a change I thought I'd try some one sentence reviews:

1. "Destiny In The Desert" reads really well indeed and provides a very interesting counterpoint to traditional military history accounts and complements Moorehouse's trilogy perfectly. 9/10.
   
2. "Marlborough" takes awhile to get going but once attuned to Holmes' style it's easy to imagine him speaking to you and the book picks up pace. 7/10.
   
3. "Constantinople" is a relaxed narrative account of the siege and the key personalities plus it provides an insight into the importance of the new weapons employed by the Turks and how their logistics shaped the siege. 8/10.

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 link in the "Salute the Flag" section of the page footer.