Soldiers Richard Holmes (Harper Press, £25) It is the saddest farewell to the British Army — the author died in April — yet his last book is the greatest of tributes by the world-renowned military historian. Holmes was a wonderful writer, capturing the spirit of the nation's defence forces in campaigns from Charles II’s redcoats to the guards at Helmand. This ouststanding book, however, is not so much one of battles but a social history of the soldier in all his guts and glory. Holmes is in his element here, compilng in epic theme the scraps of banter, the nostalgia of war and the crude yet loyal service that was the heart of the fighting man through the ages. His argument is that the nature of the soldiers who fought at Blenheim and Waterloo, not to mention the Somme, is found in the “tribe” of artillerymen and commandos who defend the British Isles in the outposts of the world today.

Leningrad Anna Reid (Bloomsbury, £25) Next to the attritional battle of Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad must rank as the most iconic of the Russian wars. The 900-day encirclement by the Germans and the starvation of its population is a tragedy unrivalled in the annals of warfare. The death toll reached 800,000 in one of the bitterest winters on record. It is a true horror story with people grasping anything to eat — even licking the gum off wallpaper — with cannibalism, looting and murder rife. Reid has taken us down this terrible path with boldness and honesty, presenting a tapestry of shame that is as close to the holocaust as one can get.

All Hell Broke Loose Max Hastings (Harper Press, £30) The title reinforces our understanding of the cataclysmic events of the Second World War. Hell indeed came to the world, from the Burma Railway to the Holocaust, from the Eastern Front to the North Atlantic, and the tides of war can be seen as a merciless procession of death and destruction. Hastings has plunged into the maelstrom of war so dynamically, so effectively that he may well come to be described as the military historian of the century. It is the detail of personal experience and strategy in the various theatres of war that helps to put this book high above the parapet.