The 90th Anniversary of the Armistice has seen an interesting crop of books on the First World War including new collections of edited letters by participants. Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig symbolises what to many people was sheer military stupidity which saw the death of a generation. Yet at the end of the war he was seen as a great military commander and a hero, not least in his native Scotland.

I have just been reading a new assessment of Douglas Haig - J P Harris Douglas Haig and the First World War (Cambridge University Press £25.00). Yet another biography of Haig I hear you groan? Forty years ago we had John Terraine's biography, truly a hagiography, then Dennis Winter Haig's Command from the "bloody fools" school of military history. Paul Harris, now has written the most balanced assessment of Haig as a military commander with new insights and thoughtful observations. An important book about a military commander and a war that still haunts us today.