McGonagall and Tommy Atkins

After David Phillips' No Poets' Corner In The Abbey it cannot be necessary now to identify William M'Gonagall, the handloom weaver whose haunted life was sustained and glorified by his invincible belief in his own genius. He was not the clown who longed to play Hamlet. He was the real Hamlet, making his entrance forever on a permanent banana skin. And by doing so he went not into oblivion, but into folklore. The Muse of M'Gonagall could be turned on by almost anything, but Battles were his infallible inspiration - from Waterloo to Inkerman to Ashanti, Omdurman to the Dargai Heights - long-forgotten engagements, sieges, sorties, reliefs, charges, all acclaimed in primary colours and well-thumbed rhymes. The reduction of an honest simpleton to ridicule is the greatest of tragedies. This book is not for that. Rather is it a salutation of one of God's clumsy innocents who found his way among the angels. And what a time he must be giving them now! An unusual and additional feature is the Appendix II guide to colouring the 29 full-page drawings by George Robinson. The detailed accuracy of the illustrations, the result of long and painstaking research, will prove of great value - and delight - to all who have an interest in Military History, be they schoolboys, cadets, servicemen, top brass or recognised authorities...