Cardigan

James Thomas Brudenell, Seventh Earl of Cardigan (1797-1868), dragoon, hussar, huntsman, landholder, husband, adulterer, sometime Member of Parliament, duelist, probably the most hated and adulated aristocrat of his time, waited for almost sixty years for his moment of glory (or disaster, as his enemies and most historians would insist). When it came, it took place in an obscure Crimean valley, lasted twenty minutes, and was dubbed The Charge of the Light Brigade. . .in recreating the event and its complex prelude, Donald Thomas gives us a view of the Crimean War which will startle even those who thought they knew it all.