Rodric Braithwaite

The Crimean War spelt the end of hymns to heroism and glory

Writing from opposite sides, Leo Tolstoy and William Howard Russell exposed the horror of conditions in a quagmire war which seemed to have no meaning

Photograph of Sir William Russell Howard in the Crimea by Roger Fenton, 1855. [GHI/Universal Images/Getty Images]
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  • Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell and the Birth of Modern Warfare

    Gregory Carleton

    Hurst, pp. 264, £27

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