My Review (5 stars out of 5)
Based largely on extracts from letters, diaries and newspaper articles, Paul Kerr’s book was originally a tie-in with a 1997 TV series on Channel 4, and is told through the eyes of the soldiers, sailors, doctors, nurses, artists and reporters who were there. As well as the British point of view, there are accounts from French, Russian and Turkish soldiers, family members, reporters and onlookers.
I’d previously read about the work of photographer Roger Fenton (considered after the Crimean War to be the first war photographer, though there are other contenders for that title), so I knew something about the conflict. This book recounts firsthand observations by people who were there, including Times correspondent William Howard Russell, officer’s wife Fanny Duberly and soon-to-be famous novelist Leo Tolstoy, as well as nursing heroine Florence Nightingale, who set about reorganising the laundry and the kitchens in a bid to supply decent food and clean sheets for the wounded at the hospital at Scutari. Conditions generally were appalling, not least the effects of the weather – rain and snow contributed to horrendously deep mud on the unmetalled roads, triggering difficulties for both men and animals (many horses died through sinking into mud up to their bellies, and frost-bitten fingers were par for the course for the soldiers).
Casualties during the war were massive, with as many as 500,000 Russians killed, compared to a mere 22,000 on the British side. Florence Nightingale put the high number of fatalities down to ‘bad food and bad air’ and gave herself the task of improving hospital management and the training of nurses. The war highlighted the lack of tactical knowledge of British officers, weakened the Russian army and helped reform both the British army and European politics.
A fascinating book that lifts the lid on an appalling conflict.
Colin Garrow 