Sir Basil Liddell Hart was a military strategist and writer of great acclaim, and one of the world's outstanding teacher-historians. Born in Paris in 1895, he was educated at Cambridge before serving on the Western Front with the Yorkshire Light Infantry after which he was military correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and The Times. He evolved several military tactical developments including the Battle Drill system and was an early advocate of airpower and armoured forces. He lectured on strategy and tactics at staff colleges in numerous countries. His many books include biographies of several great commanders, and The Other Side of the Hill - his interviews with the Second World War's highest-ranking German generals. He was knighted in 1966 and died in 1970.
Unlikely to be surpassed * Sunday Telegraph * A work of art . . . Liddell Hart is not simply a prophet and a critic but a historian of great rank * Economist * It is a work of great length and great learning, illuminated by flashes of insight . . . full of brilliant strategic analysis -- A. J. P. Taylor