This month sees a book that I have been looking forward to for months finally being published. The Peninsular War Atlas is a huge book of almost 400 pages and 161 maps detailing every major engagement of the war.

The Peninsular War is one of the most important conflicts in the history of the British Army, creating the reputation of the Duke of Wellington and many of the army\'s most famous regiments. Vimerio,  the retreat from Corunna, Talavera, the Lines of Torres Vedras, Fuentes de Onoro, Albuera, the sieges of Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vitoria and the battle for the Pyrennes are just some of the actions they took part in that have been immortalised in the letters and diaries written by the participants and more recently by the Sharpe books from Bernard Cornwell.

However the contribution of the Spanish and Portuguese is often overlooked with the vital contribution of the guerrillas acknowledged but the actions of their conventional forces forgotten or derided.

With this book Nick Lipscombe covers all the major battles and engagements of the war from Junot\'s invasion of Portugal to the Battle of Toulouse in 1814. Over eight years he has put together the most comprehensive atlas of the conflict, through 161 maps alongside an authoritative text. With an introduction by Professor Charles Esdaile this is a fantastic book for any Napoleonic enthusiast and one that I am very pleased to see in print.

The atlas is published in collaboration with Peninsular War 200, an organisation set up to commemorate this important conflict and the contribution of those who fought in it. They are organising or assisting others in organising a number of events and anniversaries that do this.

(Check out the blog tomorrow for some incredible photos of the Atlas)