Between the Crimean War and the dawn of the 20th century, the British Army was almost continuously engaged, in one corner of the globe or another, in military operations famously characterized by Kipling as the 'savage wars of peace'. From Cairo to Cape Town, hard-pressed handfuls of British soldiers flogged across often impossible terrain, and overcame a raft of logistic difficulties, to bring a succession of resourceful enemies to battle. When at length the protagonists met at close quarters, there were startling, unexpected and violent outcomes. In his new work Lieutenant Colonel Mike Snook deploys his professional expertise as a soldier, in concert with his life-long study of British military history, to bring the most dramatic clashes of the age of empire back to life. The names of these great battles-Isandlwana, Maiwand, Majuba Hill, Khartoum, Colenos, Spion Kop and Magersfontein, still resonate down through the ages. In a wide-ranging and meticulously researched military history, the author focuses closely on defeat and disaster-the occasions when things went badly awry for the British. Overstretch, political meddling, military incompetence and petty jealousy all played their part. Above all else, however, these are dramatic and perceptive account so mere mortal men struggling to deal with the often overpowering dynamics and horrors of 19th-century warfare on the fringes of Empire.

Prologue: Zululand, January 1879 -- The Victorian Army in an age of transition: the challenge of modernization, 1854-1899 -- 'Wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains': the Battle of Maiwand -- 'Floreat Etona': the Battles of Laing's Nek and Ingogo -- Hill of Doves: the Battle of Majuba Hill -- White pashas: British contract-officers and the Mahdist Revolt -- Desert column: the dash for Khartoum -- 'Sold by a damned gunner': Sir Redvers Buller and the Battle of Colenso -- 'That complete shambles': the Battle of Spion Kop -- School of hard knocks: defeat in the Colonies, 1879-1900.