Spoils of War: The Treasures, Trophies and Trivia of the British Empire

Over the last seven hundred years the United Kingdom has acquired a staggering array of treasures as a direct result of its military activities - from Joan of Arc's ring to the Rock of Gibraltar to Hitler's desk. Spoils of War describes these spoils and how they came to be acquired as well as telling the tales of some of the extraordinary (and extraordinarily incompetent) men and women, now mostly forgotten, who had a hand in the rise and fall of the British Empire. Along the way the book debunks a significant number of myths, exposes a major fraud perpetrated on a leading London museum, reveals previously unknown spoils of war and casts light on some very dark corners of Britain's military history. The United Kingdom is a treasure-trove of military acquisitions - ranging from the bizarre to the priceless. In 'The Spoils of War' historian Christopher Joll unveils the remarkable, and often strange, stories of how and where many of them were procured.