From Agincourt to Waterloo, Dunkirk to the Gulf War, and everywhere in between, one man has served in all these battles. The British soldier. This is the story of Britain at war from the perspective of this man, in effect the autobiography of the British soldier.

In a comprehensive series of 200 first-hand accounts, intelligently linked by the author, this anthology offers huge insight into the experience of war: from a view from the ranks at Agincourt and the hell of the Black Hole of Calcutta, to a First World War's soldier's poignant last letter home to his son, a powerful description of the horror on board the burning Sir Galahad during the Falklands conflict of the 1980s, right up to the dangerous existence of a frontline soldier in Basra. Winner of impossible victories, cannon fodder for the Western Front, thin khaki line against Hitler - wherever and whenever, the British soldier has done his duty.