On the Spot: Allan Mallinson
‘The generalship at the top in the First World War was as bad as Liddell Hart said it was’.
Why are you a military historian?
I like to think that I’m first a historian, but one whose 35 years in the army led to a particular interest.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
That believing you are starting anything from scratch is a fast way to disaster.
Which book has had the greatest influence on you?
Probably – and unfashionably – G.M. Trevelyan’s England Under the Stuarts.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Defeat into Victory, Field Marshal Slim’s account of the campaign in Burma 1942-45.
Which moment would you most like to go back to?
6.30 pm, 18 June 1815 – which means I would have survived the day’s fighting at Waterloo to see the British line advance.
Which historian has had the greatest influence on you?
Directly, John Keegan. Indirectly, Sir John Fortescue.
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