The Madman and the Butcher

More about the book

Award-winning author Tim Cook turns his narrative powers to the conflict between two towering Great War figures: Sir Arthur Currie, Canadian Corps commander and a brilliant, morally brave general and innovator who overcame many of the challenges of trench warfare, and Sir Sam Hughes, Canada’s war minister who accused Currie of being a butcher, a callous murderer of his own men. Set against the backdrop of Europe’s battlefields and Canada’s political tumult, The Madman and the Butcher is a powerful double biography that explores the nation’s discomfort with heroes, the need to place blame, and the very public war of reputations that raged on after the guns fell silent. Using newly uncovered sources, Cook creates a haunting portrait of our greatest battlefield general and the man who tried to destroy him.