Peter Harrington — новинки

‘Left London, on a journey with Kabool as my objective via Brindisi and Bombay’. With these words written on Tuesday October 15, 1878, the Scottish artist William Simpson (1823-1899), commenced a daily journal which he later entitled Diary of a Journey to Afghanistan during the Campaign of 1878-79. Simpson was no stranger to the life of a ‘special’ having previously covered military campaigns in Abyssinia, France, and California on behalf of his employer, the Illustrated London News. Earlier, his efforts in the Crimean War had already established his reputation for accuracy and an eye for detail. As an ‘embedded’ artist with the Peshawar Valley Field Force, Simpson recorded the events leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879 which brought the first phase of the Second Afghan War to a close. During his six months in Afghanistan, he sent back numerous sketches, drawings and watercolours accompanied by detailed captions to his newspaper in London. This period could be described as a ‘phony war’ as the British waited for the various tribal leaders to come into camp in Jalalabad and swear their allegiance to the British Government. The inactivity of the army with only the occasional punitive expedition to alleviate the boredom allowed Simpson to pursue his antiquarian interests by exploring caves and excavating several ancient Buddhist burial monuments known as stupas. In addition to the finely detailed and exquisite pictures, Simpson’s diary contains accounts of his studies of these ancient sites as well as commentaries on the people and places he observed. Upon his return to England, he collected all his original sketches, drawings and watercolors sent to ‘News and mounted them in two large albums, one dealing with the war, the people and the country, the other containing all his archaeological pictures. The diary paints a rare picture of the life of a 19th century ‘special’ artist in a war zone and the mechanics and editorial decisions that went into the pictorial coverage of a colonial war. It also offers a unique insight into early colonial archaeology undertaken by Simpson and a number of British officers while on campaign continuing the tradition of oriental scholarship among army officials. While much of this revolved around ‘treasure hunting’ Simpson went beyond this to understand the Buddhist culture that created the many monuments surrounding the Jalalabad Valley. This edition of the diary benefits from an extensive introduction and appendices.

Charles Nedham was just twenty when he arrived in India in July 1845 as an ensign in HM 10th Foot. For the next four and a half years he lived as a young officer on duty in the sub-continent, finally seeing action in the Second Sikh War at the siege of Multan and the battle of Gujerat. His journal which he illustrated with fine pencil drawings of various sites and buildings offers glimpses of life in peace and war in India, as well as the contempt and prejudices shown by the British towards the native population. He was equally cynical and critical towards a number of the British commanders for their poor handling of the campaign. The journal provides a window into attitudes towards the empire, as well as the life of a bachelor officer in the early 19th century.

In the last years of his reign Henry VIII needed a radically modern system of defence to protect England and its new Church. Anticipating a foreign onslaught from Catholic Europe after his split from Rome, Henry energetically began construction of more than 20 stone forts to protect England's major ports and estuaries. Aided by excellent illustrations, Peter Harrington explores the departure from artillery-vulnerable medieval castle designs, to the low, sturdy stone fortresses inspired by European ideas. He explains the scientific care taken to select sites for these castles, and the transition from medieval to modern in this last surge of English castle construction.

The techniques of European warfare were transformed during the 15th and 16th centuries by the use of gunpowder and by substantial progress in the effectiveness and destructive power of artillery. The series of conflicts in the 1640s, known collectively as the English Civil War, was the first in the British Isles that reflected this new reality. Sieges that aimed at isolating and reducing fortified places became the dominant instrument for prosecuting the war and protective fortifications were vital, for both the besieged as well as the besieger. This title describes how both the Parliamentarians and the Royalists made use of new fortification techniques throughout the course of this conflict.

In 1900 a violent rebellion swept northern China - the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers were a secret society who sought to rid their country of the pernicious influence of the foreign powers who had gradually acquired a stranglehold on China. With the connivance of the Imperial Court they laid siege to the legation quarter of Peking. Trapped inside were an assortment of diplomats, civilians and a small number of troops. They were all Sir Claude Macdonald, the British Minister in Peking, had to defend against thousands of hostile Boxers and Imperial troops. It would now be a race against time. Could the rag-tag defenders hold out long enough for the gathering relief force to reach them? This book describes the desperate series of events as the multinational force rushed to their rescue.

After relatively lowly beginnings as a writer in the East India Company, Robert Clive rose to be perhaps the most important single figure in the history of British involvement in India. At Plassey on 23 June 1757 Clive's 3,500 native and East India Company troops faced an army of 50,000 under the French supported nawab Siraj-ud-daula. Having succeeded in keeping his powder dry in a torrential rainstorm, Clive's guns were able to open a murderous fire on the enemy. Siraj-ud-daula's attack was beaten off and the counter-attack which Clive launched swept the field; with only the French gunners fighting to the last.

Culloden marked the end of the last and greatest of the Jacobite adventures the '45 Rebellion in which the Highland clans challenged the power of the Hanoverian King of England. It was at Culloden that Charles Edward Stuart's army was finally defeated. His tired Highlanders had little chance against the steady infantry and heavy artillery fire of the English. Peter Harrington examines all aspects of the battle, including its background, the earlier Highlander victories, the men and commanders of both sides, and the massacre that took place in its aftermath.