A remarkable, and dare I say under-rated, account of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny - written by the wife of a cavalry officer. Drawing on contemporaneous sources (Mrs Duberly's Journal and letters home, E E P Tisdall sketches a lively first person account. That a woman was able to live and experience close action in the Crimea, the more so in India at the height of a major rebellion, is staggering - but Fanny Duberly's descripton of events is compelling - not one to mince her words, she saw the slaughter, the miserable conditions endured by the army (cold and rain in the Crimes, searing heat in India), and the health problems of cholera, dysentery and the rest. ( )