Fanny was quite a girl, but also a writer of considerable talent. Maligned by some of her contemporaries because she didn't quite fit in with the Victorian image of what a 'lady' should be, she did things her way and wrote about them in a vivid, lively way, bringing the Crimean War to gut-wrenching life in a way no history book can. She was there for the duration, saw the Charge of the Light Brigade, walked through the ruins of Sebastopol and didn't hesitate to say what she thought. Admired, parodied but never ignored, Fanny Duberly was a force of nature and a woman out of her time. The diary...