THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ran an excellent review by Noel Malcolm: 'Hugh Bicheno's new study of the battle of Lepanto takes an invigoratingly fresh look at all these questions... Where this book really excels, however, is in its rich, multi-layered treatment of the battle itself and all the factors - technological, tactical, political and psychological - that were at work, both in the fighting and in the preparations for it. Bicheno has all the right qualifications: now a military historian, he has had a career in intelligence, and has clearly spent some time messing around in boats... The result is a wide-ranging and constantly engaging book, written under the presure of real intellectual enthusiasm... anyone who opens this book will quickly be drawn into an extraordinary world of military rivalry and power-politics.' Noel Malcolm, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (22/6/03) 'In Crescent and Cross, Bicheno roves enthusiastically on a wide-ranging tour across the 16th-century mediterranean. There are illuminating passages on oceanography and climatology together with well-researched studies of the fleets and their assorted weaponry. Graphic, pithy observations underline the awfulness of medieval war... cheerfully idealogical, highly readable...' Justin Marozzi, FINANCIAL TIMES (19/7/03) 'Bicheno's accountof the battle, his detailed analysis of battle formations, vessels deployed,weapons used and the practical problems of operating on these vessels, is fascinating.' Justin Cartwright INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (27/7/03) There has also been a very good review in the LITERARY REVIEW: 'As a narrative of the battle, Crescent and Cross is unlikely to be surpassed. Hugh Bicheno brings to his subject not only deep knowledge, but also an enviable ability to convey both the glamour and horror of sixteenth-century war.' John Adamson, LITERARY REVIEW (July 2003)
