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Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:41 pm

Dear Forum

I am reliably informed that Col. Snook's excellent book, LWOTF, is extremely difficult to get hold of. I have a colleague who is keen to part with his copy for a reasonable sum!

Any interested should contact me via this Forum or phone 01993 897226.

Regards

Paul Whitehead

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:04 am

Well, that's good news for Mike and all the outlets who stocked the book the first time around.

No doubt Mike will use the evidence to secure a more substantial advance from his publisher for his next tome.

Peter

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:44 pm

No, don't encourage him ... he'll change his mind about writing an autobiography!!

(Only joking, Mike, really!)

Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:22 am

That'll be the day. The only substantial advance I've ever seen came in kilometres not pounds sterling!!

I hear that HCMDB and LWOTF will go to paperback early-ish in 2009, just too late for Christmas - now don't get me started on WH Smith and witless 'celebrity' autobiographies again!! Maybe a change of tack is called for...My Zulu Booky-Wook ....yes, I like it....that should work.

M

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:09 pm

Oh, I hope that paperback makes it over to Canada. I work at a book store and I would love to see your books on the shelf. I have read "How men can die better" a few years back and Like Wolves on the Fold is next up.

Is your other book "Into the jaws of death" going paperback any time soon?

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:10 pm

Johnny

You not know anyone from here, relatives and such, that could send you a copy, if not available where you're at ?

You work in a book store ?

Excellent job - Personally, I'd never leave, with all those books to read through ! Wink

Coll

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:31 am

I actually have both hardcover's of How man can die better & Like wolves on the fold. The trouble is 'Into the jaws of death' its quite an expensive book and if it were to come out in paperback it might be a bit more affordable.

Working in a book store certainly has its ups but it also has its downs. I don't get allot of hours with the economy in the tank as it is. I've tonnes of books hehe I've out bought what I could possibly read in a year. Ranging from the French-Indian war to the present. The colonial era of war during the Victorian era is by far my favourite subject though.

I'm a long time lurker here. I've been fascinated by the Zulu war since childhood.

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:18 pm

Hello Johnny and Coll

I find that during my absence in the Sudan Casemate have deferred the publication of the HCMDB paperback from July to to September. I'm sure they will have their reasons. I'm working with two and a half other publishers at the moment and keeping up with them is more than enough - so I tend not to badger Casemate too much. But September is what they say.

Like Wolves will definitely follow it into paperback - but not sure yet whether it will be this year or next.

So my apologies Coll for misleading you about publication in July. I've been otherwise occupied in various dry and dusty places and took my eye off the publishing ball. The author's always the last to know eh?!!

As ever

Mike

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:36 pm

Well you can rest assured, that if it becomes available in Canada to the bookstore I work for and we are able to carry it. I'll try to sell as many copies as possible. I'm a part-timer and I mostly work in the history section and I've been trying to bring in as much Victorian-era stuff as possible.

My other fascination other than the AZW is the 2nd Anglo-Boer War, more specifically the Canadian contingent's contribution to the conflict. I'm trying to bring in Ian Knight's Rorke's Drift and Washing of the Spears and I'd be happy to see your two volumes as well.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:16 am

Johnny

I had a number of Canadian officers working for me in the Sudan - they were all good career officers because all they bought the boss's books on the internet and got him to autograph them!! They were good hands though and I miss them. Some of them came with me on various expeditions into the wilder bits of Sudan and thus played a role in researching the next book. It sounds like you haven't seen No 3, which is called Into the Jaws of Death, and offers a wider take on the Victorian period as a whole. It has quite a lot of stuff on both the Boer Wars, though sadly no Canadians (mea culpa). As a (mildly!) interesting aside the Boer War tends to be held up as the first overseas deployment of both Canadian and Australlian troops but the Aussies put a New South Wales battalion and a battery into Sudan in 1885.

We had a very nice Commonwealth morning in Khartoum on April 25 this year, when the Aussies and Kiwis hosted the usual ANZAC day comemmoration at the Commonwalth War Graves Commission cemetery in the city - a beautiful little oasis of green in an encircling sea of dust, dirt and sand. The Canadians were in fine form - and especially an Ontario state policeman who was just excellent on the bagpipes. Anzac day is a dawn ceremony - so many were the undiplomatic jokes from our commonwealth allies about old men fleeing the city for the desert - as the last time they heard the cat being strangled it turned out to be Kitchener and the Cameron Highlanders!!

There were a handful of Canadians buried in Khartoum from WW2, though Lord forgive me, the details evade me now. I was preoccupied with the Victorian era graves, many of which had been re-located there from Wady Halfa and Suakin. There were also many South African air force men.

A disadvantage of dawn ceremonies is the obligatory post-ceremony drinking gets underway at what most people would call breakfast time. This might be called uncivilized in some quarters - but you know, if you can't beat 'em, join em, eh? The Australians thought it was terribly original to be drinking at that time of day, but overlooked the fact that it is a perfectly normal time to be drinking in British Army messes - asssuming a 7 pm start - the day before! Amateurs. Wink

Regards

Mike

PS. Also, for more general interest, I went to the CWGC cemetery at Tel-el-Kebir, north east of Cairo. This similarly was in beautiful condition; I gave the groundsman a good tip for his devotion to duty of course. Unfortunately the crosses on the older Victorian graves had been struck down at some point in the distant past - whether it was 1956 or later I couldn't say. But the WW1 and WW2 graves which have only engraved crosses were all OK. Vandalised graves of 1882 included those of HLI, RA, and RM. If anybody in those orgs wants to do a project to restore them I can proivide details and photography of the vandalized graves.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:37 am

Thanks for the story Sir, it sounds like it was quite the moving ceremony and quite a good time in the Sudan. I'm not in the service but have a few friends who are. I'm extremely proud of them and anyone who wears a uniform for H.M. & the country they love (past or present).

I'll be trying to get a copy of Into the jaws of death in the store in the next few months. After your two volumes on the AZW I have Stephen Manning's biography "Evelyn Wood V.C. - Pillar of Empire" which should be a fascinating read.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:46 am

Johnny

Good time - no - merely an edited highlight. In the wider context it is a sad and messy business out there. Interesting? For sure.

You are right to be proud of your people - they were great ambassadors for your country. They were without exception good hands - deeply committed and damned hard workers. I'm proud to have served with them.

Regards

Mike

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:51 pm

Aye, I'm aware of what a mess of a state the Sudan is in. Still it must be fascinating to go see the Victorian graves, the sites like Abu Klea and Omdurman. To see these places first hand must really be something.