We received the following: William Grattan's classic ADVENTURES WITH THE CONNAUGHT RANGERS is due in paperback from Greenhill later this month. "Upon my honour, Colonel Wallace, I never witnessed a more gallant charge than that made just now by your regiment." This commendation from Lord Wellington after the 88th Regiment cleared the heights at Busaco marked William Grattan's first engagement in the Peninsular War. The second found him commanding the leading company in the attack on Fuentes d'Onoro. In the years 1809 to 1814 the first battalion of the Connaught Rangers were to lose 49 out of 103 officers killed or wounded and gain eleven battle honours while earning their nickname 'The Devil's Own' as part of General Picton's 3rd Division, or the 'Fighting Division' as he was proud to call it. Lieutenant Grattan served four years continuously with the colours, only staying off duty for a few weeks after being wounded at Badajoz. These reminiscences form not only a graphic chronicle of such conflicts as Busaco, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz and Salamanca where the regiment repeatedly covered itself with glory but also provides an unusually entertaining account of the Irish soldier in and out of battle, portraying some of the most lively characters this side of Dublin's fair city. Modest, brave and with a keen appreciation of the humorous, Grattan's first-hand account of the vicissitudes of the rank and file regarding pay, promotion, food and clothing, their views on Spain and Spaniards and their thoughts upon a variety of commanders lifts his narrative into the very front rank of Peninsular autobiographies. ADVENTURES WITH THE CONNAUGHT RANGERS is 243 x 156mm and 346 pages. £12.95 GREENHILL BOOKS/LIONEL LEVENTHAL LIMITED Park House, 1 Russell Gardens, London NW11 9NN . Telephone: 020 8458 6314 . Fax: 020 8905 5245. E-mail: sales@greenhillbooks.com. Web: http://www.greenhillbooks.com. Distributed in the USA by Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 (Tel (800) 732 3669, e-mail sales@stackpolebooks.com). Back to 3rd Quarter 2003 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com