Jackson served as a non-commissioned officer in the British army during the Boer Campaign. That being said, books published by the "rank and file" are few and far between, with most of the first-person narratives having been written by officers or journalists. So I was very excited to pick this copy up and get into it. I was not impressed. Despite the disclaimer at the front of the book that this was a collection of the author's personal diaries, and may never have been intended for publication, nevertheless, the publisher thought that it did merit publication and so it was. If you are looking for particular insights into the campaign itself, you will not find it here. There is no sense of how Jackson's unit fit into the overall campaign. It is a disparate collection of personal anecdotes and observations of a low-ranking non-commisioned officer, that discusses what you might expect: quality of food, bad weather, perpectives of those serving with and immediately above him. By the author's own admittance, he sometimes inserts narrative in a non-chronological fashion, further complicating the story line. What I did find worthy was the personal sketches that he produced of his observations. These alone are worth more than the narrative. Bottom line, dont look here for anything of note with regard to the Boer War. ( )