{"product_id":"9780007198856_warriors-extraordinary-tales-from-the-battlefield","title":"Warriors: Extraordinary Tales From The Battlefield","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exhilarating and uplifting account of the lives of sixteen ‘warriors’ from the last three centuries, hand-picked for their bravery or extraordinary military experience by the eminent military historian, author and ex-editor of the Daily Telegraph, Sir Max Hastings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the course of forty years of writing about war, Max Hastings has grown fascinated by outstanding deeds of derring-do on the battlefield (land, sea or air) – and by their practitioners. He takes as his examples sixteen people from different nationalities in modern history – including Napoleon’s ‘blessed fool’ Baron Marcellin de Marbot (the model for Conan Doyle’s Brigadier Gerard); Sir Harry Smith, whose Spanish wife Juana became his military companion on many a campaign in the early 19th-century; Lieutenant John Chard, an unassuming engineer who became the hero of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu wars; and Squadron Leader Guy Gibson, the ‘dam buster’ whose heroism in the skies of World War II earned him the nation's admiration, but few friends.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery army, in order to prevail on the battlefield, needs a certain number of people capable of courage beyond the norm. In this book Max Hastings investigates what this norm might be – and how it has changed over the centuries. While celebrating feats of outstanding valour, he also throws a beady eye over the awarding of medals for gallantry – and why it is that so often the most successful warriors rarely make the grade as leaders of men.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Max Hastings","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46895199781013,"sku":"9780007198856","price":24.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780007198856_f0034f8f-5c7b-4316-9416-e3acd21f77e3.jpg?v=1776888356","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780007198856_warriors-extraordinary-tales-from-the-battlefield","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}