Annual Booklist 2025 : Dr James Cook OBE
Dr James Cook OBE is the current Chair of the SAHR, having recently retired after a 30-year career in the British Army as a Royal Artillery Officer and latterly as an Army HR professional. By accident, he completed a PhD at King's College London in 2020 entitled, ‘The Transformation of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front 1914-1918, via a Process of Learning - Lessons, Doctrine, and Training’. The research allowed James to better understand that victory in warfare is not always about military genius, incredible technology, and luck, but often about how you think about warfare, codify your thoughts into doctrine, and then train your army accordingly. The thesis steps away from many of the classic tropes of the First World War and focuses on some very ordinary doctrine writers and less well-known senior leaders who had the vision to invent/codify a new way of warfare.
My book choices are a combination of my motivation for an Army career, some on the First World War that support my PhD, and lastly, those that changed my preconceptions on leadership and warfare. What they all do is abide by our SAHR motto, “Praeterita explorando discimus” which translates as, “By exploring the past, we learn.”
Sir Peter De La Billiere, Looking for Trouble: SAS to Gulf Command - The Autobiography
One of the reasons I joined the Army in 1995 was the impact of this book. An easy read, full of very personal stories about soldiering, leadership, and excitement. The general's style is chatty and warm, and yet he brings some very important leadership lessons to life with exceptional stories. A true wartime hero of a generation now forgotten and his experiences within both the SAS and as a very senior leader in conventional warfare in the Gulf in 1991. I recommend reading it for two reasons. Firstly, to better understand soldiers, officers, and leadership, and secondly, to see what can be accomplished in a single military career, simply inspirational!
Sir Mike Jackson, Soldier
I had the pleasure of working briefly with General Mike, a formidable officer and strategic thinker. It was easy to see the characterisation of General Mike, but his book is a gleeful look into his mind, experiences, and thinking processes. Like De La Billiere above, a soldier of his generation who was both inspiring and frightening at the same time. No nonsense and engaging, the book not only takes you through his own Army career and wider life but also explores some of the military campaigns that defined the 20th century and shaped our world today. Lastly, an easy read that any academic should be eager to read to understand better what it means to serve and lead.
Ernest Swinton, The Defence of Duffers Drift
A spoof doctrine book about the experiences of a fictional subaltern in the Boer War. It is free to download as a PDF and is the best example of how to communicate simple ideas to many people through a compelling narrative and fun style. Within the short story, the subaltern at large has various dreams that outline where he is going wrong as a commander of a small outpost - Duffers Drift - that he is trying to protect from the Boers. His dreams allow him to develop his ideas over the course of a few days until he broadly succeeds in his mission. It's worth reading as firstly it's free and short, and secondly it is a majestic example of how to communicate big ideas in little passages. It was very much part of my doctoral thinking in how you staff doctrine for an Army, and as such unpicked the theory that long, dry narrative was the only way. Search for it now and enjoy it in the next hour.
Saul David, 100 Days to Victory
One of the easiest reads about the First World War available. It helped me understand the order of major events and how they interlinked throughout the war. I felt initially I knew plenty about the war, but this book shows the breadth of the war geographically and how seemingly separate incidents coalesced to bring about strategic change. Light in style, but heaving in content, it is a master piece description, making it easy to read, and no matter what you know of the Great War, this book adds value by tying separate events together.
Bill Philpot, Bloody Victory, The Sacrifice on the Somme
As I undertook my thesis, Bill Philpot at KCL was one of the first inspirational lecturers about the Great War I met and worked with as a battlefield guide. I not only enjoyed his company, but found his book one of the few that has the detail on the Somme that does it justice. It ranges from the grand strategic to the sub-tactical. It considers the war from both Allied and Axis perspectives and, most importantly, ties together all the various strands of the Somme campaign. Yes, he makes it out to be a bloodthirsty waste of time, yet not through ignorance of military leadership but by a combination of wartime factors that neither leadership could predict. It provided not only a turning point in my understanding of the Great War, but of course describes the turning point in the Great War for the BEF. Immensely detailed and dense, but it needs to be to be worthy of the many soldiers and officers who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The book I wish I could read is: The Autobiography of Brigadier Arthur Solly-Flood, 1908-1920. Arthur Solly-Flood was a giant of the First World War that nobody knows of. He was a staff officer at the British Army Staff College in Camberley pre-war and, after a successful time as a brigade commander, was appointed by General Haig to be the Director of the Training Directorate in 1917. He went on to manage the codification and production of a plethora of doctrine manuals that not only invented new ways of warfare but also how to train armies to fight in the new way. His work as the leader of a small group of staff writers probably did more to win the war than 99% of other brigadiers, and yet he has no memoirs or personal papers; he is only known indirectly. Hence, for very selfish reasons to do with my own PhD research, I would dearly love for his diaries to be found one day and for a brilliant young academic to discover his process and his genius that facilitated BEF victory in 1918.