The Man Who Lived Twice

Although this is a fictionalised account, the man featured in The Man Who Lived Twice written by David Taylor, Colonel George S Leger Grenfell, was very very real 19th century military figure.

Of Cornish extraction, he was an extremely brave soldier of fortune who fought on four different continents before emigrating to America to fight on the side of the Confederate forces.

He rode with the infamous Morgan's Raiders and was involved in a plot to create a Northern Confederation, for which he was arrested as a spy and sentenced to hang.

The intervention of the British government had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment at the Dry Tortugas prison where he was subjected to an incredibly brutal regime of what can only be described as torture, even though by that time he was in his early 60s.

His cell companion was the unfortunate Dr Samuel Mudd, jailed for his alleged part in the Lincoln assassination  plot.

But no matter how brutal the guards, Dr Mudd and Grenfell worked hard to save them from a Yellow Fever epidemic, which showed the mettle of both men.

After the epidemic Grenfell escaped from the prison in an open boat, never to be heard from again. The authorities presumed that he and his fellow escapees had drowned in the attempt.

But David Taylor wonders about what might have happened.

Grenfell was both incredibly brave, but also incredibly flawed. A wanted criminal and a fraudster, it's felt his desire for military glory was an attempt to atone for his earlier life of crime.

It's a powerful and well-written book which students of 19th century military history will be keen to own.

It is published by Matador at £7.99.