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Captain John Orrok's frank and engaging letters give a graphic account of the life of a young Scottish army officer serving with Wellington's army in India in the early nineteenth century. They tell of the ups and downs of his developing career in the 33rd Regiment, his deep love for his wife Betsy and their growing family, and his yearning for the fireside back home in Banff. "The Letters of Captain John Orrok" follows John to Hydrabad and Seringapatam, as the army keeps a watchful eye on the Maratha insurgents, as well as introducing John's many notable connections - his father William, a senior officer in the East India Company army, who played a brave but inglorious part in Wellington's great victory at Assaye; his cousin-in-law Arthur Gore, whose distinguished military career is celebrated by a memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral; and, another cousin, Isabella Freese, romantically linked with Wellington himself.Betsy dies in childbirth and John returns desolate to London to build a new life and bring up his young children. After a spell as a recruiting officer, he settles in Baker Street, becomes a bookseller and enters Regency society, before his final letters which show him looking for a less expensive life in Brussels on the eve of Waterloo. Discovered in an attic long after his death, the letters open a window on the world in which John lived, revealing his innermost thoughts on everything from great historical events to the price of acorns. Alison McBrayne's illuminating introduction sets John and his letters in their social and military context, and follows his later life through a long affair to remarriage, and his eventual death in Jamaica.

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