Back
Al Murray: Command (2023, Headline Publishing Group) 3 stars

Good in its anecdotes but all too brief

3 stars

On the cover it claims to be about "How the Allies Learned to Win the Second World War" but it's really not that.

What actually happens is that Murray picks a selection of officers, mainly pretty senior and all army, and spends a chapter on each.

Out of that comes a lot of interesting stories. For example Monty on VD is a fascinating interlude but you actually learn little about Monty in general. And that's often the way. Murray is having to pick little episodes out of each officer's life and run with that and I didn't really feel he came to any real conclusion.

But overall it works pretty well, and it certainly left me wanting to know more about some of the characters and also more about the subjects that the book wander into. So a worthwhile read.