More Churchill

BACK in July I read Winston Churchill's My Early Life, which I spotted in an East London branch of Oxfam.

The book proved to be a rollicking read, and made me want to buy more by the famous war-time leader.

First up: The Story Of The Malakand Field Force - An Episode Of Frontier War, published in 1898.

In it Churchill describes a campaign that he took part in on India's Northwest Frontier that pitted a British-led army against recalcitrant tribesmen.

The book deliberately goes into fairly minute detail of the preparations and actions, intended originally to give the British public an insight into how its troops engaged in one of the empire's so-called 'little wars'.

I rarely if ever use the term "must-read," but that is what this book is for anyone interested in colonial wargaming, at least as such warfare occurred in the late-1800s.

A reprint by Alpha Editions