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Jump to navigationJump to searchInto The Valley of Death by A L Berridge (view source)
Revision as of 07:00, 25 May 2013
, 07:00, 25 May 2013no edit summary
The book takes its title from Tennyson's famous poem
''Half a league, half a league'',<br>''Half a league onward,''<br>''All in the valley of Death''<br>''Rode the six hundred''
The six hundred of the Light Brigade into that desperate charge of which one French onlooker declared ""''C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre'' which roughly translates as ''magnificent but no way to fight a war''.
The Charge of the Light Brigade is one of those cornerstones of English mythology that we're all aware of, but probably don't generally know very much about. My own ignorance was sufficient that half way through Berridge's rendition of events I checked with my military-history-buff boyfriend ''What happened? What is the currently accepted view?''
She has her hero abandoned shortly after making landfall, due to a crass decision on the part of his officers, but this is part of the narrative mechanism for the chance meeting of men from a number of regiments and backgrounds who will cross paths and join forces throughout the battles to come. It clearly didn't happen, but there's no reason why it shouldn't have done.
We have Harry Ryder – the sensible maverick cavalry NCO, always at odds with his vindictive TSM Jarvis. Left on the beach he teams up with the core group for the adventure: there's the young cavalry recruit ""''Polly"" '' Oliver, who sees in Ryder the proto-hero he'd like to be; Nial Mackenzie the mad highlander straight out of Braveheart, complete with kilt and a touch of madness, and the friendless grenadier guard Dennis Woodall who stands too much on his dignity. Between them on their first night on ""''dry"" '' land in the Crimea they fashion a shelter out of the rain, share the coffee and learn a new card game called Bridge from an officer who just happens to be passing.
And then the battle commences…
I can't help wondering if that is just a reflection of the attitude of the times, that has come out of the research, or whether there's a touch of modern sentiment in there. It seems to me that all of the recent public debate about the rights and wrongs of the conflicts our governments involve us in, have regenerated a feeling that the men on the ground are doing what their country, their army, their regiment, has asked of them and that we're proud of that, and of them.
You can ignore any political import though, and just read this for the ripping yarn that it is. Ryder has the Sergeant Major on his back (quite literally), he can see the stupidity that many others can't, but he does his best to follow orders. Having a ""''face"" '' in each camp, Berridge is able to give us the grand sweep of the battles as they were fought on all fronts.
She takes us in to the camps and the hospitals, shows us the grit and grue as well as the glory. She has a few 'on the staff' women to round out the story.
