Author: Donald Featherstone. Leo Cooper - £ 3.00. Donald Featherstone, the Southampton writer on all matters military (he seems to produce his books slightly faster than five rounds rapid), has a new one called "MacDonald of the 42nd", which doesn't quite hit the target. And yet you are surprised to find that you don't mind this. The author fails in his central aim, but this merely leaves the reader pleased to have the central aim disposed of so that he can get on reading without interruption. Basically the book (out through Seely Service and Co., at £ 3), is a chronicle of the 42nd (The Black Watch) and of the activities of the Highland Brigade in the Crimea and in India. But Mr. Featherstone didn't mean it to be just like that. He tried a twist. He attempted to "novelise" his history by unearthing an old letter from a Black Watch veteran called Hector MacDonald. Then he put Hector into the pages, hoping we should read through his eyes. I should like to see Mr. Featherstone moving into the field of the historical novel, but this seems like a shaky first attempt. He doesn't succeed in making either MacDonald or his brothers appear as central characters. Indeed, they are forgotten for long periods of narrative, and when they re-emerge are irrelevant. Yet all is not lost. When it comes to military facts, Mr. Featherstone can get their fastest with the mostest. His balance is nicely held between tactics and feelings; the historical progression of events and what it was really like, The Black Watch, who helped with the research, must surely be pleased. They should buy this one by the crate-load and issue a free copy to all new recruits. That's if the regiment still exists. It didn't go down in the last bureaucratic massacre, did it? The ghost of old Sir Colin Campbell would have had something to say. (W.M.Hill, Southern Evening Echo, 12-1-1972). Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 120 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com