The history of England would read very differently if the French troops who invaded a small Welsh village during the height of the French revolutionary war had been even slightly more competent.

Fortunately for the British, the invasion force was poorly led and inadequately supported. The troops themselves were mostly criminals, with no real zeal for the task, so despite a few blunders by the defenders, the French were quickly defeated. Or, perhaps more accurately, the French realized they had no hope of success and surrendered.

Phil Carradice tells the tale in entertaining fashion in Britain's Last Invasion: The Battle of Fishguard 1797. Carradice sets the scene, describes events as they occurred, deflates a few myths about the bungled operation, spells out the aftermath and discusses the "what if" theories that could have seen a very different result -- if only a small detail here or there had gone differently.

Some truly horrible things occurred during the brief occupation of the sparsely populated coastal region -- these were, after all, the dregs of French society who were set free to run amuck among the rural Welsh residents -- but at times, the story devolves into a farce as misjudgments and errors compound one another. At the same time, a few heroes arose from the chaos.

This brief, fruitless maneuver was the last time an army of invaders set foot on mainland Britain. It's a story worth remembering, and Carradice has pulled together the facts and fictions of the incident in a very readable text.