H Jones VC

In the years since the Falklands War, accounts of the conflict in print and on TV have been broadly polarised; military descriptions have centred on the tactics and actions of the conflict itself while politically focused versions have tended to present the episode as futile, concentrating on the often cynical actions of the major players before, during and after the war. Recently, particular attention has been given to one individual, Colonel 'H' Jones, whose individual action of self-sacrifice was considered at the time to be a turning-point in the war (and one for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross), but in hindsight has been interpreted by some as an unnecessary and inappropriate act. John Wilsey's book is that rare thing - one which sticks to the facts. An account of a controversial character and his actions from one who knew him well as a friend and colleague, and who, as one of the most senior generals in the British Army, also knows the facts from a soldier's point of view, Wilsey's book was written in part as an attempt to set the record straight. More than just an account of the crucial events of the Falklands War in which Jones was involved, this is a full biography of a man described most frequently as 'complex'. Whatever the hypocrisy of the politics behind the conflict, whatever the wisdom of Colonel Jones's lone and fatal charge on the enemy trenches on Darwin Ridge, it cannot be denied that he was a lead-from-the-front hero of the old school, and this biography, which includes an insider's view of life in one of the oldest British Regiments and the true brutality of the last war in which British troops were involved in hand-to-hand fighting, makes for a stirring and sobering read. (Kirkus UK)