The Theatres of War is an admirable attempt to reclaim for the 'new' cultural history both military history and a now obscure literature ... Russell's book does not perhaps engage fully with the intricacies of the ideological conflict abroad in Britain during the French Revolution, but the breadth of material she has unearthed, from the short-lived 'African Theatre' of the Cape Colony to the 'Aquatic Theatre' of Sadler's Wells, from the private theatricals
of the elite to the spouting-clubs of the Plymouth docks, and the poise with which she manages it all, is ample compensation.
