Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket

Richard Holmes is a military historian, the writer and presenter of “War Walks” and author of “Firing Line” and “Riding the Retreat”. Drawing on a wealth of original source material – diaries, letters, memoirs – “Redcoat” is an anecdotal history of the British soldier from 1700 to 1900, a period in which methods of warfare and the social makeup of the British army changed little, and in which the Empire was forged. Similar in style to Katie Hickman’s “Daughters of Britannia”, or Simon Schama’s “Citizens”, this is a history of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900 by one of Britain’s military writers and broadcasters. “Redcoat” is filled with anecdote and humour as well as historical analysis.