Allan Mallinson

It's 1814, and Napoleon is hard-pressed to defend France from a combination of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. Nor is he the only one in a quandary....

January 1829: Cuts in the army mean that Matthew Hervey’s Dragoons are to be reduced to a single squadron....

The prime minister is resisting growing calls for parliamentary reform, provoking scenes of violent unrest....

1826: Napoleon Bonaparte is dead, the Congress of Vienna's work is done, and there is peace in Europe....

It is 1817, and Captain Matthew Hervey has returned from his bloody battles in India to find England in political and economic disorder....

India, 1816. Fresh from the field of Waterloo, Matthew Hervey is dispatched on a mission of the utmost secrecy....

1824, the Sixth Light Dragoons are still stationed in India, and the talk in the officers' mess is of war....

Things are looking up for Major Matthew Hervey: news of a handsome legacy should allow him to purchase command of his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons....

In 1827 Captain Sir Laughton Peto, recently engaged to Matthew Hervey's sister, Elizabeth, has just taken command of HMS Prince Rupert....

When Hervey is told by his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, that the Zulu warrior king, Shaka, is about to make war on neighbouring tribes, he knows that matters are perilous indeed....