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Company Of Spears

The eighth novel in the acclaimed and bestselling series finds Hervey on his way to South Africa where he is preparing to form a new body of cavalry, the Cape Mounted Rifles.All looks set fair for Major Matthew Hervey: news of a handsome legacy should allow him to purchase command of his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. He is resolved to marry, and rather to his surprise, the object of his affections — the widow of the late Sir Ivo Lankester — has readily consented. But he has reckoned without the opportunism of a fellow officer with ready cash to hand; and before too long, he is on the lookout for a new posting. However, Hervey has always been well-served by old and loyal friends, and Eyre Somervile comes to his aid with the means of promotion: there is need of a man to help reorganize the local forces at the Cape Colony, and in particular to form a new body of horse.At the Cape, Hervey is at once thrown into frontier skirmishes with the Xhosa and Bushmen, but it is Eyre Somervile's instruction to range deep across the frontier, into the territory of the Zulus, that is his greatest test. Accompanied by the charming, cultured, but dissipated Edward Fairbrother, a black captain from the disbanded Royal African Corps and bastard son of a Jamaican planter, he makes contact with the legendary King Shaka, and thereafter warns Somervile of the danger that the expanding Zulu nation poses to the Cape Colony.The climax of the novel is the battle of Umtata River (August 1828), in which Hervey has to fight as he has never fought before, and in so doing saves the life of the nephew of one of the Duke of Wellington's closest friends.

Allan Mallinson

Исторические приключения18+

COMPANY

OF SPEARS

ALLAN MALLINSON

Also Allan Mallison

AND FEATURING MATTHEW HERVEY

A CLOSE RUN THING

1815: introducing Matthew Hervey, fighting for King and country

at the Battle of Waterloo.

‘I have never read a more enthralling account of a battle … This is

the first in a series of Matthew Hervey adventures. The next can’t

come soon enough for me’

DAILY MAIL

THE NIZAM’S DAUGHTERS

1816: in India Matthew Hervey fights to prevent bloody civil war.

‘Captain Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons and ADC to the Duke

of Wellington is back in the saddle … He is as fascinating on

horseback as Jack Aubrey is on the quarterdeck’

THE TIMES

A REGIMENTAL AFFAIR

1817: Matthew Hervey faces renegades at home and in North America.

A riveting tale of heroism, derring-do and enormous resource in the

face of overwhelming adversity’

BIRMINGHAM POST

A CALL TO ARMS

1819: Matthew Hervey races to confront Burmese rebels massing in the jungle.

‘Hervey continues to grow in stature as an engaging and credible

character, while Mallinson himself continues to delight’

OBSERVER

THE SABRE’S EDGE

1824: in India Matthew Hervey lays siege to the fortress of Bhurtpore.

‘Splendid… the tale is as historically stimulating

as it is stirringly exciting’

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

RUMOURS OF WAR

1826: while Matthew Hervey prepares for civil war in Portugal, he

remembers the Retreat to Corunna twenty years previously.

‘I enjoyed the adventure immensely … as compelling, vivid and

plausible as any war novel I’ve ever read’

ANDREW ROBERTS, DAILY TELEGRAPH

AN ACT OF COURAGE

1826: a prisoner of the Spanish, Matthew Hervey relives the blood

and carnage of the Siege of Badajoz.

‘Concentrating on the battle of Talavera and the investment of

Badajoz, both sparklingly described, [Mallinson]plays to his

undoubted strengths’

OBSERVER

COMPANY OF SPEARS

1827: on the plains of South Africa, Matthew Hervey

confronts the savage Zulu.

A damn fine rip-roaring read’

LITERARY REVIEW

FOREWORD

The historian Correlli Barnett (Britain and Her Army) describes how ‘thanks to their mercenary army’ Britain as a whole ‘would never feel the burden of world power in the Victorian age … The British could rage at military incompetence when the army they neglected (and never joined) suffered some disaster … they could presume to take pride in victories won despite their indifference. War became a noise far away.’

Matthew Hervey and the 6th Light Dragoons knew about noise far away: they had heard it well enough in India. But they also knew there could be noise at home – if not actual war then certainly something as repugnant, for in 1827 the Metropolitan Police Act was still two years off, and the magistrates’ only recourse was to the army when civil disturbance threatened.

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