The Street Philosopher

There was another war, some 150 years ago, which was unpopular at home – the death rate shocking, the military strategy confused – and the first on which the media had a major influence. The Street Philosopher – the nineteenth-century term for a society writer, a gossip columnist – captures this scene brilliantly.Ambitious young journalist Thomas Kitson arrives at the battlefields of the Crimea as the London Courier's man on the ground. It is a dangerous place, full of the worst horrors of war but Kitson is determined to make his mark. Under the tutelage of his hard-bitten Irish boss…