<DIV>On September 13, 1759, British and French forces fought one of the most decisive battles in history, on the Plains of Abraham outside the Canadian capital, Quebec. The British force decisively routed the French, seizing the city and, ultimately, all of Canada. But the struggle for Quebec was far more than one climactic battle: the campaign involved an immense military and naval operation, an 18th-century D-Day. Matthew Ward has researched British and Canadian archives extensively to look at the entire campaign, from its inception in Whitehall to its ultimate culmination in Montreal in 1760. What emerges is not just a picture of bravery and heroism, but also of a campaign which became increasingly brutal and cruel, with both sides resorting to practices such as the routine scalping of enemy dead. It is also a surprising picture of the day-to-day, often mundane, lives of civilians and troops many thousands of miles from home.</div>