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"We have given the Gallic cockerel a vast heap of sand" said British Foreign secretary Lord Salisbury after Britain and France divided much of Africa between them. 'Let him scratch it how he will'. France's chief 'sandpit' was Algeria, conquered in 1830 in the otherwise undistinguished reign of King Louis-Philippe. with the aid of the newly-formed French Foreign Legion who were to be based in Algeria for the next century and beyond. The story of that conquest is recounted here for the first time in English by a British officer in a book first published in 1909. Algeria was wrested from the feeble hands of the Dey of Algiers, the Arab ruler who paid homage to the Ottoman Empire - already far gone in decay. But if getting hold of the vast country, mostly composed of barren desert and mountains, was comparatively easy, keeping it was to prove a nightmare from which France only awoke in 1962 when Algeria gained independence. Laurie's book is a clear and concise account of a colonial conquest in a part of the world where conflict continues to this day.

Originally commissioned by order of King William IV oin the 1830s, publication of this full and fascinating regimental history was suspended, then work resumed on it in the 1880s. The result of this delay is a particularly detailed account of a unit that saw service in most of the British Empire's theatres of war and peace between the 1790s when it was raised, down to the high noon of the Victorian Empire in the 1880s. The 89th Princess Victoria Regiment was recruited in Ireland, and speedily saw service in their native island in repelling a French landing at Bantry Bay in 1796, and again saw action during the French-backed 1798 rebellion, when it fought at the battle of Vinegar Hill. In 1800 the 89th were again in action against the French in Sicily and Malta, and in 1801 fought under Sir Ralph Abercrombie in Egypt. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars the regiment served in South America and India, while its 2nd Battalion also served in the 1812 War against the United States. The Regiment fought in India's Mahratta War in 1818, and the Burmese War of 1824-25. It continued to do garrison duty in India in the late 1820s, and in the Caribbean in the 1830s, where it suffered cruelly from the ravages of Yellow fever. In the 'year of revolutions', 1848, the regiment was employed at home in England during the repression of the Chartist riots. During the Crimean War the regiment served with distiction at the Battle of Balaclava and the Siege of Sebastopol. In the following year, 1857, the regiment was rushed to India to deal with the Indian Mutiny, where it remained for much of the 1860s and 1870s, before seeing service in the Suakim War in the Sudan. This account of the 89th's eventful history was written by Rowland Brinckman, the Regimental adjutant. It is illustrated by particularly fine colour engravings, and accompanied by appendices listing officers who served with the 89th, Index etc.

The author of this book was a Brigadier-General in 1914, commanding the 10th Infantry Brigade (1st R Warwicks, 2nd Seaforth H, 1st R Irish Fusiliers and 2nd R Dublin Fusiliers) of the 4th Division; he ended up as a corps commander. The 4th Division formed the second wave of the BEF, arriving in France on 22nd August 1914 in time to join in the retreat from Mons. This account, though not published until after the war, was written at the front in the Spring of 1915 and the author has allowed it to stand practically as it was written at the time, thus providing a valuable and immediate contribution to the fighting in those early days. He covers Le Cateau, the retreat, the subsequent advance to the Aisne and the move to Flanders. In mid-November 1914 Haldane handed over command of 10th Brigade at 'Plugstreet' on promotion to command of the 3rd Division at Ypres, where its commander, Maj Gen E.Hamilton, had been killed. During the retreat from Mons the COs of 1st R Warwicks and 2nd RDF attempted to negotiate the surrender of their battalions at St Quentin, a move that was frustrated by the actions of Major Tom Bridges. Both COs were courtmartialled and cashiered, but Haldane makes no mention of the incident.