Ten weeks. 28,000 soldiers. 8,000 miles from home.

The Falklands War in 1982 was one of the strangest in British history. At the time, many Britons saw it as a tragic absurdity - thousands of men sent overseas for a tiny relic of empire - but the British victory over the Argentinians not only confirmed the quality of British arms but also boosted the political fortunes of Thatcher's Conservative government.

However, it left a chequered aftermath and was later overshadowed by the two Gulf wars.

Max Hastings' and Simon Jenkins' account of the conflict is a modern classic of war reportage and the definitive book on the conflict.