Featured battle : Badajoz, Second British siege

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 18 May 1811 - 10 June 1811

After Albuera Wellington returned to the siege of Badajoz. Beresford's works were restored and the fortress surrounded by 14,000 troops. However the siege did not progress quickly due to the shortage of equipment. The French attempt to lift the siege with 58,000 men was successful as Wellington withdrew on their approach.

The Decline of Empires in South Asia

Heather A Campbell
This book covers quite a niche subject in the history of what became known as "The Great Game" between the British Empire and the Russian Empire in South Asia. It focuses on the problems of imperial control over primarily Afghanistan in the years 1919-1923, and how the conflicts between the Indian government, the India Office, and the Foreign Office in London. It uses as a comparison the approaches taken during those same years in Persia, and while it covers a number of viewpoints, it largely revolves around Lord Curzon, his strong personality, and the mistakes it argues that he made because of it.
I found this book to be fascinating, and extremely thoroughly researched (the notes pages and bibliography are approximately one third of the book) but it is really quite academic and probably not for a casual reader.
Pen & Sword Military, 2022