Clare Gibson, a writer and editor, is the founder of The Army Children Archive (TACA), www.archhistory.co.uk, a website that chronicles the history of British army children from the seventeenth century to date.

An army childhood is a peripatetic childhood. Beginning with the establishment of Britain's standing army, Clare Gibson sheds light on such crucial aspects of the army-child experience as the places that they have called home and how they have been transported, housed, educated and entertained while in the army's care. This informative and evocatively illustrated book will appeal to those interested in British military history's social side, and to those seeking to understand what life was like for an erstwhile army-child ancestor. It is also essential reading for those who were once themselves 'barrack rats', 'pads brats' or 'army brats', for whom it is sure to arouse nostalgic memories.