[Illustrated with over two hundred and sixty maps, photos and portraits, of the battles, individuals and places involved in the Crimean War] At a regimental gathering following Sir George Higginson’s funeral one officer remarked to another that no-one could remember the regiment without Sir George present. It is hardly surprising as General Sir George Wentworth Alexander Higginson GCB, GCVO had lived for 101 years, the longest of any British General, and as the title of his autobiography indicates the majority of those years in the Grenadier Guards. General Higginson’s life seemed to be in fact two lives; the first in active service with the British army, he would see action in many parts of the world. He would achieve great fame as a hero of the Crimean War and his reminiscences of which forms the greater part of this volume. The Author travelled out to the Crimea as adjutant of the 3rd Battalion; and fought at the battles at Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman at which he was greatly distinguished. His details of the siege and fall of Sebastopol are among the best that survive. He details in full the filthy unsanitary conditions, inept command, and cholera that the British soldiers had to endure, not to mention the shot and shell of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers. Following his military retirement in 1893 at the ripe age of 67 and then embarked on career as advisor to Queen Victoria, travelling dignitary as far afield as America and Russia and figurehead of the regime. A renowned and statesmanlike figure he died in 1927 mourned by all who knew him. A fascinating autobiography.

Edward Armitage was a highly-esteemed 19th century artist who lived and worked at a time when the social fabric of Britain was being transformed by the Industrial Revolution and attitudes towards art were changing in favour of genres more appealing to the emerging middle classes. Coinciding with the 2017 bicentenary of Armitage’s birth, the book is based on Jill Armitage’s extensive research into her relative’s life and work. Born in 1817 to a family of wealthy northern industrialists, Edward Armitage trained in Bohemian Paris before making his name in Britain as one of the artists chosen to redecorate the new Houses of Parliament. He was one of the first artists to make the long journey to the Crimea during the war against Russia, and one of the first to include recent archaeological discoveries in his paintings. He was appointed Professor and Lecturer on Painting at the Royal Academy in 1875, where his outspoken views were sometimes controversial. But as Armitage grew older, his serious, French style of painting became increasingly unfashionable. In this well-illustrated biography, Jill provides the first comprehensive account of Armitage’s life and work, with detailed references to the social, historical and cultural context in which he lived. The book will appeal to fans of Armitage’s paintings, as well as those with an interest in art history and the Victorian era.