| Synopsis: |
This is a story of soldiers, battle hardened veterans of an Army that lost only one campaign in fifty fought during Victoria's 62 years of reign. It tells of comradeship and courage, of brutality, hardship, squalor, violence and death- all occurring during the Hot Season, within four barrack room walls in India, with no man leaving the cantonment nor any battles being fought. In 1868, when the story is set, the British Army was an 'old' Army, of long-service soldiers- hard-drinking, hard-swearing, stubborn, bigoted, long-suffering, harshly-treated men, many of them middle-aged. These were the standards and customs of the time and, when reading this book, should be accepted with a historical awareness separate form that which hindsight and modern belief systems afford us. |