War without Pity in the South Indian Peninsula 1798-1813: The Letter Book of Lieutenant-Colonel Valentine Blacker.' (War & Military Culture in South Asia)

What a well-written and interesting book. The first background sections give a history of the wars which is concise but informative. The letters themselves are fascinating: a different time and a different place, but still family endearments between exposing the truth about war and army mismanagement.

David Howell has been fortunate to find an unpublished soldiers letter book of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the Rubenstein Library at Duke University North Carolina USA. The letters of Valentine Blacker, Madras Army were copied into a letter book by his father the Rev'd Blacker, a cleric in Armagh Northern Ireland and offer an intriguing insight into the military life of the young officer between 1798-1813. His many adventures and wounds paints a picture of the East India Company's wars and conflicts but also his lengthy periods of sickness point up the frailty of life for the British, many more of whom died of cholera, typhoid, typhus and assorted fevers than those killed on active service. The absence of the mention of women in his letters or the supposedly regular bouts of feasting and heavy drinking perhaps reflect more on his father's profession than the realities of life for a young soldier. War Without Pity has many footnotes and biographical details that make this a readable and enjoyable account of a British Officers life in the Madras Army, his letters home and his eventual rise to Lieutenant Colonel in command of The Survey of India. A family tree would have been a helpful addition, and his footnote on the 'unknown' reasons Colonel P.A. Agnew had been censured by the East India Company could have been resolved by a referral to The Bibliography of the East India Company, W2430 p. 133. That said, for readers and students of the History of British India, this is a book certainly worth purchasing.