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This book, originally entitled, The Life of James O'Malley, gave few clues as to its content. In fact, it is an engaging eye-witness account of the war in the Crimea, with all of its attendant privations, savage violence and disease, as experienced by an ordinary British infantryman, told in simple but graphic detail. O'Malley joined the Leicestershire regiment, the 17th Foot-known proudly as the Royal Bengal Tigers-following exemplary service in India. The regiment was stationed in O'Malley's native Ireland and he there enlisted and learned the fundamentals of a good soldier of the grenadier company. The Crimean War saw his regiment sent to the trenches before Sebastopol and O'Malley's descriptions of the conflict there will strike all readers of military history as tellingly reminiscent of the trench warfare of the Great War some 60 years later. The British Army during this campaign was woefully ill equipped to fight a campaign in the Crimea, as most students will know, and O'Malley's descriptions of the conditions he and his comrades endured particularly from the encroaching winter are most poignant. O'Malley's book was poorly produced in its original edition and has been substantially re-worked by the Leonaur editors for modern readers. The original title of the work perhaps guaranteed its comparative obscurity so it will be welcomed as a new addition to the libraries of those interested in the period.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.