It was said of George Dennison that he had seen more active service in southern Africa than any other living man. An eminent soldier cast from a colonial mould of bitter experience, rather than of a formal military education, he was also a frontiersman equal in standing to any legendary figure of the American West. His military career saw him rise from an uncouth trooper with the Bloemfontein Rangers to, fifty years later, a distinguished officer whose advice was sought by the likes of Lor...

The first Britons to reach Zululand were a handful of shipwrecked traders. They found themselves completely at the mercy of a nation whose name would become a byword for ferocity and courage. The castaways were fearful of their lives but, to their surprise, were well treated and prospered.At the time, the Indian Ocean shoreline of the Zulu kingdom extended for almost 400 miles, whilst its inland frontiers reached as far as the Drakensberg mountains. Fifty years later the kingdom ha...

"A densely detailed account of the 1879 Zulu defeat of the British . . . portrays a complex and interesting segment of British/African history."— Library JournalThe battle of Isandlwana—a great Zulu victory—was one of the worst defeats ever to befall a British Army. At noon on 22 January 1879, a British camp, garrisoned by over 1700 troops, was attacked and overwhelmed by 20,000 Zulu warriors. The defeat of the British, armed with the most modern weaponry ...

A concise history of the Battle of Isandlwana, the first encounter of the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.In 1878, H.M. High Commissioner for Southern Africa and the Lieut. General Commanding H.M. Forces, clandestinely conspired to invade the Zulu Kingdom. Drastically underestimating their foe, the invaders had been vanquished within days of entering the Zulu Kingdom, in one of the greatest disasters ever to befall a British army.The author not only dramatically des...

"Good focused context" pinpoints the historical significance of the single bloodiest episode in the Second Boer War—from a Zulu warfare expert ( FGS Forum).Spion Kop, just northeast of Ladysmith, South Africa, was the largest hill in the region, being over 1,400 feet high, and it lay almost exactly at the center of the Boer line. If the British could capture this position and bring artillery to the hill, they would then command the flanks of the surroundin...

Three true tales of Civil War combat, as recounted by the #1 New York Times –bestselling author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee .The acclaimed historian of the American West turns his attention to the country's bloody civil conflict, chronicling the exploits of extraordinary soldiers who served in unexpected ways at a pivotal moment in the nation's history.Grierson'...

Deborah is a British First World War tank that rose from the grave after taking part in one of the most momentous battles in history. In November 1917 she played a leading role in the first successful massed tank attack at Cambrai. Eighty years later, in a remarkable feat of archaeology, the tanks buried remains were rediscovered and excavated, and are now preserved as a memorial to the battle and to the men who fought in it. John Taylors book tells the tale of the tank and her crew and tr...

A "truly exceptional" account of how Churchill's experiences in the armed forces helped him lead Britain to victory in World War II ( Booklist).No defense minister in modern times has faced the challenges that Winston Churchill did during the Second World War. Fortunately, he had a unique and intimate inside knowledge of all three services, which allowed him to assess their real needs—a crucial task when money, material resources, and, especially, manpower...

Shot at, bombed, imprisoned and arrested for murder. His is the story the establishment doesn't want you to read.br>Captain P. J. "Red" Riley is an ex-SAS soldier who served for eighteen years as an MI6 agent. Riley escaped internment in Chile during the Falklands war during an audacious top-secret attempt to attack the Argentinian mainland. He was imprisoned in the darkness of the Sierra Leonean jungle, and withstood heavy fire in war-torn Beirut and Syria. In 2015, he was arrested...

In the spring of 1565, a massive fleet of Ottoman ships descended on Malta, a small island centrally located between North Africa and Sicily, home and headquarters of the crusading Knights of St. John and their charismatic Grand Master, Jean de Valette. The Knights had been expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and now stood as the last bastion against a Muslim invasion of Sicily, southern Italy, and beyond. The siege force of Turks, Arabs, and Barbary corsa...

Filling The Void is a book about how the cultures and psychology of social media use fit within a broader landscape of life under capitalism. It argues that social media use is often a psychological response to the need for pleasure and comfort that results from the stresses of life under postmodern capitalism, rather than being a driver of new behaviours as newer technologies are often said to be. Both the explosive growth of social media and the corresponding reconfiguration of the web f...

From the authors of An Infamous Mistress: "The tale of two juicy 19th-century scandals, both concerning the aristocratic Cavendish-Bentinck family" ( Cheshire Life ).Almost two books in one, A Right Royal Scandal recounts the fascinating history of the irregular love matches contracted by two successive generations of the Cavendish-Bentinck family, ancestors of the British royal family. The first part of ...