John Barratt is a leading authority on the Royalist Armies in the Civil War. Author of over a dozen books on the subject, including Cavaliers the first detailed study of the Royalist forces, and a nuber of campain histories. His latest books with Helion include Rabble of Gentility the story of the Northern Horse, and The Last Battle: The Stow on the Wold Campaign. He lectures regularly on historical subjects and lives in the Welsh Marches, an area rich in history!

Between 1642 and 1646 two armies fought for control of Southwest England in one of the decisive confrontations of the English Civil Wars. In this short, turbulent period Royalists loyal to King Charles I clashed with the forces of Parliament in a series of hard-fought campaigns that crisscrossed the West Country landscape. Rearguard actions, sieges, skirmishes, retreats and pitched battles punctuated the course of the conflict, yet no previous book has retold the story of the Southwestern campaigns in detail. John Barratt's account of this bloody and disruptive phase in the West Country's history offers a graphic description of the engagements themselves and takes the reader on a tour of the battlefields.