The Donkeys - Softcover

Clark, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712650350 ISBN 13: 9780712650359

Publisher: Random House UK, 1991

Synopsis

A study of the Western Front in 1915, this book is a stinging indictment of incompetent generalship. The author explores the truth of the observation that British troops were "lions led by donkeys" and shows how appalling losses almost completely destroyed the old professional army.

About this title

About the Author:

Alan Clark was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He served in the Household Cavalry before qualifying for the Bar in 1955. In 1974 he became Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton and went on to hold a number of ministerial posts. He wrote several works of military history: The Fall of Crete, Barbarossa: The Russo-German Conflict 1941-45 and Aces High: The War in the Air over the Western Front. He also published his Diaries. Alan Clark died in 1999.

Review:

"A shell-burst of a book" * The Economist * "An eloquent and painful book... Clark leaves the impression that vanity and stupidity were the main ingredients of the massacres of 1915. He writes searingly and unforgettably" -- George Malcolm Thomson * Evening Standard * "Mr Clark writes with verve, venom and real feeling for the men whose lives the brasshats squandered" -- Paul Johnson * New Statesman * "So far from being "just another war book" that it is likely to be bought and read for years to come" -- Vernon Fane * Sphere * "He is a writer with considerable gifts both of description and narrative. His subject gives them plenty of scope; indeed his descriptions of battles and battlefields are sometimes masterly" -- Michael Howard * Listener *

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0712650350
• ISBN 13: 9780712650359
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216