Gives a very clear view of the happenings during partition of India. For me this book also put into perspective the role played by major players like Gandhi, Nehru, Jinha, Patel, Mountbatten etc. and their interpersonal relationships and politics.

I was prepared not to like this book. I say this at the beginning to give the reader of this review warning: I'm a convert, somewhat, to the author's point of view.

The Dieppe Raid is one of the puzzles of WW2. Why the British persisted in launching it when it had already been cancelled once, and was obviously a precarious proposition at best, has never been satisfactorily explained. My worry was that Villa, being a Canadian, would take an explicitly anti-British point of view, with which I would take issue. He doesn't.

Instead, the book focuses on the decision-making process, and the way governments launch operations in wartime. This part of the book is fascinating, and enlightening. His premise (that Mountbatten launched the raid himself, as Combined Operations head, without the required approval of the Chiefs of Staff) is a bit of a stretch, but by the end of the book, I was willing to say I needed to see an alternative explanation before I believed otherwise.

The book's style is rather formal, and there's little attempt at humor or levity, but the writing is clear and incisive. The author has obviously done his homework. There are separate chapters on the navy and RAF, both of which display knowledge of the overall context of the period of the war in which Dieppe took place, and the circumstances under which the decision was made. All of this strongly adds to the book itself, and the author's thesis. All in all a very good book.

Propaganda towards The King of England's, etc..., extinction notwithstanding, such anti-evidence of "our" usual presentation to "our" Embassies and The World Court, if not also "our" "U.N. General Assembly," "we" in confiscation of "our" own "domestic/International" copyright legal prerogative, proclaim the four star rating from the subject matter's heretofore anonymous greatness, considering "H.E." is the Grandfather of the "Cross"-hybridization of an all European Royalty God, even on hypocritical earth, via commingled genetic mixing with "our" Father, Oskar Clas Frederick (SUECIA ET DANIA REX), creating the Divinity of such "our" prophetic Imperial dominance towards the truth of completely unifying Continental Monarchy(ies)(such book leaving out the fact that from Divine prophecy of "Lord" Louis' Grandson, "our" family being of relation to Rome's AUGUSTUS OCTAVIANUS; of such illuminations Philip, "our" estranged cousin, wants some Ira to just blow him up he's so extatic about having Caesar's genes) within Imperial Royal prerogative of, for example, "our" Halloween World Court Edicts regarding such conspirator secrecy as not depicted for such book's purchasers, returning to "our" Four birth-right Kingdoms through "our" Sovereign Coined image used on certain "small" denominations of "small" privitized "real estate" "claims" (Hapsburg) of "small" to be Kingdoms, as was similarly expressed within Ziegler's "Mountbatten," tales of the war(s), particularly bringing back memories of "my" Grandfather Mountbatten, "Do you go to the mountains and (batten) play baseball?," telling of the Burmese warriors who had to contact blood on their knives if pulled from sheath or the capsizing of his command vessel off the coast of Greece after attack from German war planes, a Prince of Greece, etc., defending his territorial "claim," ironically, again, against yet another (Germany) of "our" neverending right of fact claim of right, Divine Rights from "h.i.m.," "we" say, "...ici, ici...Dieu et mon droit, DEUS IUSI EGO," as (buy it and read it then get the full story at The Emperor's website forthcoming) I command it.

I read this book when it first came out. My grandmother was a Batenberg. According to oral tradition in the family, her grandfather was appraoched by a German Lawyer while the family- including my Maternal Grandmother was living in the Hague, Netherlands. The lawyer indicated that Mr Batenberg of the Hague was next in line according to the laws of German to inherit a vast fortune, which included the tin mines in Russia. The tin mones were co owned by the Tzar and the House of Hesse,aka Batenberg. The offer of wealth was repudiated - the reason was that the wealth would ruin the religious committments and lifestyle of the family-and the lawyer was told to pass the inheritance on the next in line by way of descent. The next in line was Mountbattens father and when the tin mones were lost in The Russian Revolution October 1917, Louis Battenbergs father and Louis Batenberg eventually went into the British Navy for the reasons mainly related to the loss of income from the tin mines in Russia. The oral tradition in our family is supported by this book. This has rather amazed me.

Philip Ziegler was Mountbatten's official biographer. However, he claims in the preface to the book not to have been subject to any censorship, and given the frankness with which he acknowledges his subject's flaws, one can believe his claim. Mountbatten was a close relative of the British royal family; Prince Philip is his nephew, and he regularly referred to Queen Elizabeth as his niece; and he was also a close confident of Prince Charles. He was quite ambitious, and not above using his royal connections to advance his military career. How successful that career was is open to some debate. There is no question about his physical courage -- indeed, he may have had too much of it. As Field Marshall Mountgomery enjoyed pointing out, Mountbatten had three destroyers sunk under him during the early part of the war. Later, he oversaw the Dieppe raid, which was one of the worst fiascos of the war -- a large commando raid on a fortified port resulted in near elimination of some units by German forces composed in many cases of file clerks and cooks. This loss did not stop his career, however; he ended the war with the command of the Burma theater, where he seems to have performed well. After the war, he became the last British Viceroy of India, with the task of working out a peaceful transition from British rule. That was a failure, as hundreds of thousands died in riots between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims could have been forgiven for suspecting Mountbatten's neutrality; his wife was carrying on an affair with the Indian leader Nehru. Mountbatten was no saint in these matters, and could hardly complain. Mountbatten was murdered in 1979 when the IRA put a bomb on his boat. Why they did this has never been clear. Mountbatten had never been involved in Irish affairs, and at almost 80 years of age played no important part in the Government.

Ziegler does a good job of capturing Mountbatten's charm -- almost everyone who met him liked him -- and his vanity -- after Elizabeth became queen, his aides would compete to see who could be the first to get him to refer to "my niece, the Queen." Curiously, Ziegler begins the book with a description of Mountbatten enjoying reading books on his family tree, an opening that is quite similar to that of "Persuasion" by Jane Austen. The similarity is odd because the character in Austen's novel is a fool and a snob with no ability, and no other claim to distinction. That could not be said of Mountbatten.

Mountbatten lead a truly interesting life, and Ziegler has produced what is likley to be the definitive biography of that life. His honesty is such that one need not be an uncritical admirer of Mountbatten to enjoy this biography.