This richly detailed account reveals how Sir Ralph Abercromby's strategy restored the honour of the British army and averted disaster for the Empire.

In 1800 the British army's reputation was in tatters, having experienced nothing but failure in wars across the world for forty years. At home, a divided cabinet had to face the problem of Egypt, which had been occupied by Napoleon's Army of the Orient since 1798.

The momentous task of ejecting France fell to a disparate band of soldiers led by Sir Ralph Abercromby, an elderly general with a dubious military record. Yet, against all the odds, Abercromby's force decisively defeated the French army on 21 March 1801, bringing Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign to a definitive and crushing end.

Piers Mackesy vividly brings to life the events of the battle and the characters involved, revealing how Abercromby's carefully planned and brilliantly executed strategy, and the discipline of the soldiers he had welded into cohesion, restored the honour of the British army, averted disaster for the Empire, and set the standard by which all future battles would be fought.