The history of the world would have been different, according to Frank McLynn, but for 1759. For him, the "Year of Victories" stands alongside 1066 (subject of another of his books) as a pivotal date in British history - and not only because Halley's comet appeared in both years.
In India, England's defeat of the French created the conditions under which the British Raj could flourish. Victory over the same country in North America gave the local colonies the stability necessary to overthrow British rule, as well as a motive for doing so, thanks to the punitive taxation imposed by parliament to claw back the cost of the war.
The Seven Years War was the first truly global conflict. Appropriately, McLynn focuses on Britain's struggles in the Caribbean, India and North America. But he also covers Britain's various Continental entanglements, including the Battle of Minden in Germany and France's abor-tive attempts to invade Britain.
With each conflict, he helpfully sketches in the background before providing a nuts-and-bolts - or blood-and-guts - account of the action. His descriptions of naval battles are particularly stirring.
McLynn lambastes the commanders on each side for their quirks, flaws and failures (only Clive of India emerges unscathed). He is careful to stress that, even though all the important battles ended up going Britain's way, each was a close-run thing, with both sides seizing and missing vital opportunities.
According to McLynn, what tipped the balance in Britain's favour was the "sheer historical bad luck" that France had with its commanders. If British officials were merely incompetent, those on the French side were monumentally inept, yet a vacillating leadership tolerated such failings.
But 1759 was not only a year of battles. The prologue to each chapter describes the cultural and intellectual pioneers of the age - Swedenborg, Hume, Voltaire. There are amusing anecdotes, such as George II dismissing criticism of a "mad" officer by hoping "he will bite some others of my generals", and the British attackers fooling French sentries in Quebec by mumbling "La France!" and "Vive le Roi".
If this book has a failing, it is McLynn's reluctance to generalise. Because he is sceptical of overarching explanations, preferring instead to point out the role played by chance and choice, the separate campaigns never gel into a unified narrative. Wider consideration of the consequences of 1759, particularly for France (where the ancien regime never recovered from the fiscal strains of the Seven Years War), would have been welcome. However, 1759 is still a stylish and fascinating account of the first global struggle.
