This short book tries to do three things: give a military narrative of the battle of the Somme, convey something of the experiences of the soldiers who fought there, and assess to validity of the old 'Lions led by donkeys' judgement of British generals. It sort of succeeds with all three, but it might have been better in a book of this length to focus on one. I have read attempts at two and three by, for example, [a:Malcolm Brown|36489|Malcolm Brown|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and [a:Gary Sheffield|76380|Gary Sheffield|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1408616049p2/76380.jpg], which worked better because they limited their aims. Fitting, I suppose for a book on this topic. That said, this is a decent short introduction to the subject. ( )