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Date	Original Topic
28th March 2004	AZW Books By Roger Marvell I've been reading with interest over the past months the various discusions that have gone on here. My interest started in AZW from watching the movie 'Waterloo'. The'Thin Red Line' aspect has always caught my imagination. I used to be part of a wargaming club while at college and we used to play the various Napoleonic campagins. It was during this that i came across painted figures that belong to the clubs orginator and asked him what they were. He pointed out that they were British soliders from the Zulu wars. I liked the looks of them so investigated more. It was then i came across the films Zulu Dawn and Zulu and watched both with much interest and there i was hooked. Sorry for waffling on, just wanted to give abit of background as to where my liking of AZW came from. So back to my orginal question. I've seen in the discusions talk and refernece to many books of the AZW. What I would like to know if at all possible, for a person living on a tight budget, what out of all the books available on AZW is the best one to purchase. I can only afford one and would like to know from the experienced people out there which is the best one to get which covers all aspects of AZW, that is if one exists. An addition to this message. Would it be possible for the forum admin to create sub forums on popular topics like Melvil, Hook, VC winners, etc, this way preventing people from repeating questions over and over again, which seems to be the case. Apologies for a long post, hope you dont get to bored reading it. kind regards Roger
Date	Replies
28th March 2004	AMB roger, One book? There are so many! Well, here goes: For my money, the best, one shot book would be Braves Men's Blood by Ian Knight. Well written, well illustrated and more or less correct. AMB
29th March 2004	Julian Whybra Why not get several via the library service free of charge and decide for yourself?
30th March 2004	john page an excellent comprehensive book is washing of the spears by D. Morris.
30th March 2004	Peter Ewart Roger I'd agree with Andy. If going for just one book about the whole war, buy Ian Knight's "Brave Men's Blood." Comprehensive, readable, profusely illustrated, sufficiently detailed and benefiting from "modern" research (even though about 14 years old). I think it would be suitable for someone as an introduction to AZW reading and also for anyone familiar with the war but who hasn't read this particular book. Don't know if its still in print but there are plenty of copies on the 2nd hand book market, usually going for about �15/�20 or so in GB, sometimes a bit more. But take Julian's advice and raid your local library, as well as feasting yourself on the scores of books about the campaign or on Zulu history generally, available through inter-library loan. Peter
2nd April 2004	Tony Livesey Roger, Julian and Ian are spot on with their advice re your local library. I went into mine last year and they were able to offer me no less than 15 titles by Ian Knight alone. Well worth checking out. Tony.
2nd April 2004	Tony Livesey Oops! I should have typed Julian and Peter. Apologies. Tony