The Sabre's Edge ~ Paperback ~ Allan Mallinson

The year is 1824; the Sixth Light Dragoons are still stationed in India, and the talk in the officer's mess is of war. The Burmese are increasingly challenging the Company's dominion, and skirmishes are becoming common on India's borders. Meanwhile, across the country in Rajputana, a princely succession has been usurped. The rightful claimant to the raj, Balwant Singh, has been forced from the throne by the war monger Durjan Sal. A conflagration looks set to flare, taking the surrounding provinces with it. With the threat of war on two fronts, British troops must intervene. The trial ahead will test Hervey and his newly blooded troop to their very limits, for Durjan Sal has taken refuge in the infamous fortress of Bhurtpore. The fortress stands within a five-mile in perimeter, a deep ditch runs around it which can be flooded at a moment's notice, and thirty-five turreted bastions rise from its thick and lofty walls. And as the Tower of Victory, built two decades before with the skulls of Lord Lake's defeated men, bears witness, it has withstood all attacks. But no fortress is impregnable, given the will, the wit and the means. Of one thing Hervey can be sure: the siege of Bhurtpore will be hot, bloody and dangerous work. Once again, the fortunes of Matthew Hervey and his courageous troop will be decided by the sabre's edge.Author BiographyAt seventeen, Allan Mallinson gave up the promise of an exhibition at Brasenose College, Oxford to go instead to theological college. After three years he decided to take a break in training with a short-service commission in the army. He served with the infantry worldwide, and then, on deciding to make the army a career, transferred to the cavalry. He began writing while still serving - first, a history of the antecedent regiments of that which he commanded, and then the Matthew Hervey series of novels chronicling the life of a fictitious cavalry officer before and after Waterloo. He left the army in 2004 as a brigadier to write full time, including defence comment for the Daily Telegraph and then The Times. In 2009 his The Making of the British Army, a survey of the army's history and development since 1660, was shortlisted for several prizes and chosen by Jeremy Paxman for the Observer's 'Books of the Year'. An updated edition, with a commentary on the Strategic Defence and Security Review, was published in 2011. His centenary history, 1914: Fight the Good Fight - Britain, the Army and the Coming of the First World War was shortlisted for the Westminster Medal and won the Army Book of the Year Award 2013. Its sequel, Too Important for the Generals, examines the failure of Allied generals and politicians to find a less bloody strategy for victory in the First World War and will be published in June 2016. Allan Mallinson lives with his wife, Sue, a dressage trainer, on Salisbury Plain.