Joseph Bosham, self-styled third Viscount of Bosham, with a half-English Catholic priest for a father and an Italian brothel-keeper for a mother, educated in mathematics, music and philosophy but with a natural gift for languages and depravity, is born in the 1790s and settled in a turbulent Spain just as the great armies of Wellington and Napoleon vie for supremacy during the Peninsular Wars. Seduced by the glamour of battle little Jose reluctantly serves as courier, linguist, pimp and mascot to survive.

Now some years ago I read and enjoyed the author's 'The Last English King' so I approached this with high hopes but whilst I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it is a rather long and there some fairly dull philosophical rants therein, I generally found myself engrossed in it. This was largely due to the unreliable and amusing voice of the narrator, the eponymous Joseph, who was not unlike the wonderful Flashman without all the womanising, but also the evocation of a period of history which previously I knew very little about but felt that Rathbone captured without getting too bogged down in details.

On the whole this novel with some fine characters and adventures but also one that doesn't take itself too seriously. A book that can be enjoyed as an old-fashioned good boys' own story, but also one that encourage further research into the historical background behind it. ( )