I know very little about British colonial history in India except its aftermath and some of the big players. Equally Wellington lingers loosely in my mind too, Waterloo, beef and boots suggested a hugely influential character in the early 1800's. So a history which considered the wars in India, but as a thing in itself and not just as part of Wellington's development was very inciting. Initially however I found it quite hard going, as it is very much a Military History, with excellently researched and supported breakdowns of the major (and lots of minor) conflicts, levels down to the troop breakdown and company make up. Not being that heavily into military history I was impressed by the detail but the narrative didn't flow for me. I wanted to know the affect, what it was like for the soldiers - British and Indian - the impact on India itself. This is not a social history so that falls on me.

This is a book of two halves though and the second half of the book is more sociological, and does an excellent job of getting under the skin of the soldier and their lives in the barracks/tents or whatever they are made of (a good bit on this too). The book is honest about the lack of reports from the Indian soldiers - and the controversy about the one account they have. And it also is very generous in the main text about steering the reader to other biographies and accounts - it knows its own limitations (which also means it is quite confident in its strengths).

I do need to find a broader social history of this bit of history to fold some of the more detailed knowledge in from here, but the book is written with an audience in mind and I am sure it covers those bases admirably. Whilst I found the first half a bit of a slog, that was not the fault of the writing (always lively), and the scholarship (excellent curation), and I really enjoyed the second half looking into the irregular lives of the forces.