There is something particularly affecting when reading the posthumously published letters of a soldier who has fallen in battle. The hope of a future rings out clear from John Brumwell's letters back to his family in the north of England whilst he toils in the Duke of Wellington's army in Spain and Portugal, only to be cut short in 1812, two years short of peace.Local historian William Eggleston unearthed these letters still held in the same locality that Lieutenant Brumwell's family lived and wove them into a short book which contains much of the fallen officers' family background and connecting narrative explaining the war during which the letters were written. A short but worthwhile read.