Foremost military historian Richard Holmes offers us a compelling and at times terrifying account of what it means to be a contemporary soldier.

In this remarkable book, Holmes draws on the testimonies and personal photographs of the 700 soldiers of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment in Iraq to vividly capture their day-to-day experiences of the conflict, from camp kitchens to the heart of an armoured convey barrelling out across the desert.

As colonel-in-chief of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment himself from 1999 until 2007, Holmes combines acute observation with heartfelt experience to produce a gripping and deeply moving vision of his regiment at war.