The winter soldiers - Garry Douglas Kilworth

Welcome back to Seargeant 'Fancy Jack' Crossman - one of the British Army's secret weapons in the Crimean War; After the battle of Inkerman on 5th November 1854 the British Army faces a terrible winter. Provisions and clothing for the troops are hopelessly inadequate. In this grim season Sergeant 'Fancy Jack' Crossman and his men are billeted at Kadikoi village near Balaclava harbour - their official instructions to blow up the magazine in the Russian Star Fort. But it transpires this is not to be Crossman's main mission. His true, and infinitely more complex and dangerous task is to spy on a British general suspected of corruption, and to bring about his downfall. Set against a bleak backdrop it is only the sheer grit and determination of Crossman and his men which allows them to survive against all odds in the field. Garry Douglas Kilworth's skill in creating this likeable but tough soldier, with his aristocratic but problematic family background, his companions at arms and the interweaving of rousing battle scenes and true historical characters and events, combine to make the Crossman books appeal to a wide readership.