by John Harvey. 184 pages; 17 photographs; 1 map. Batsford - £ 5.50p Ever since thoroughly enjoying myself writing my own book THE BOWMEN OF ENGLAND I have had an extremely soft spot for the English yeoman and those brave and far-seeing leaders who laid the foundations of that national greatness which, for the past thirty years we have been industriously dissipating. Along with Edward I, Edward III and Henry V, the Black Prince was an outstanding Royal Soldier and, as this book so ably shows the very essence of bravery, chivalry and all that one romantically visualises when considering the knights of this period. This is not really a war book because the author only mentions Crecy, Poitiers, Najere and other battles in passing. Nevertheless, it paints a broad and beautiful background canvas that goes a long way to aiding the understanding of how a small and unfledged country could rise to such prominent heights. It might be claimed that this was due to the singular employment of the English longbow in the hands of master craftsmen - it is not far from the truth but, had those incomparable bowmen been led by inferior commanders then none of it might have happened. If the commanders were blessed with fine soldiers then the soldiers were blessei with fine commanders and few were better than the Black Prince. This is a beautifully researched and informative book which I found compelling reading. More Book Reviews World War 2 Wargaming The Black Prince and His Age Blood Brigade Japanese Infantry Weapons of World War Two With the Boers in the Transvaal and Orange Free State 1880-81 Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 173 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1976 by Donald Featherstone. 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