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Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:43 pm

Dear Coll,

Review from the Sunday Telegraph............Saul David always thought that being awarded a Victoria Cross came up with the rations. We await a response from Snooky..................

Fiction: ZULU HART by Saul David
HODDER & STOUGHTON, �12.99, 376pp

This historical yarn is as sharp as the spears that menace its hero, says Roger Perkins.

Many authors of military yarns strive for the ripping but end up with offerings that look slightly frayed. Not so Saul David, the latest British historian to turn his hand to fiction, and who with �Zulu Hart� has produced a Victorian adventure as big as the veldt and chewier than buffalo biltong.

Posted at the age of 18 to a fashionable cavalry regiment, George Hart is the secret illegitimate son of a well-heeled and influential member of the military and a half-Irish, half-Zulu actress. Nowadays one would imagine that such provenance would merely merit an inquisitive 'Ah, you must be one of the Carlow nKlunDuklis' from fellow officers, but in 1877 it's enough to drive his martinet colonel to discredit the lad and have him drummed out of the regiment by rigging an accusation of cheating at cards and interfering with lady guests.

This is a pretty poor start as Mysterious Dad has set out that George will inherit the chunkier bits of a fortune only if before the age of 28 he marries a lady of gentle birth, reaches the rank of lieutenant-colonel and wins the Victoria Cross. Hmm cheers, Pop - whoever you are. So off to South Africa it is, where attachment to a unit of irregulars places him at the centre of the lead-up to Britain's sneaky invasion of Zululand, the idiocy of defeat at Isandlwana and the sheer bloody epic of resistance at Rorke's Drift. But where do George's loyalties really lie? With a burgeoning empire whose often self-serving administrators despise him? Or with a group of proud but distrusting warriors whose connection to him grows stronger with every encounter? Sure, George Hart cuts an unconventional figure, but Saul David never forgets the story in history - the diplomacy of the period is turned effectively and amusingly into a game of sardines in a hotel and real figures of the period are endowed with motive, intent and dialogue that may be fictitious but are entirely convincing in a bristling moustache kind of way.

What used to be taught in schools as the glorious spreading of pink across the globe is exposed quite clearly as a seized opportunity simply to stiff the natives and make a couple of bob. W.S. Gilbert recognised this at the time, of course.

Any occasional lapse into exposition is more than made up for by a real sense of military detail - the stuff that would rate a footnote in an academic history is here the star of the show. Among the choice nuggets is the fact that the iklwa, the short stabbing spear of the Zulus, is named for the sound it makes as it is pulled from a body. So for those listening for the pfizlccllh, the Zulu word for the collapse of a story's plot and the deflation of its characters, tough - you won't find it here.

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 5:15 pm

I would spend �12.99 on many things; a book by Saul David is not one of them.

Peter

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 7:06 am

Saul David, the latest British historian to turn his hand to fiction .....

I thought that he specialised in that field already ?

Graham

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:18 pm

Judging from the synopsis it will be in the Humour section of the bookshops. Eventually, of course, it will be in the remainder shops.

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:54 pm

So, did anyone actually buy a copy of this book?!

AMB

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:17 am

I thumbed through a copy in my local WH Smith's on Saturday. The bits I read were dire, to be honest.

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:55 am

Nearly bought one this weekend. There were some signed copies on Ebay, but the price went over a fiver, so I didn't bother. May pick one up in a charity shop sometime.

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:41 pm

Gentlemen,

Many thanks for your last. As I thought. I shall keep my pennies....

AMB

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:09 pm

I've reserved it from Newport library, so I'll try to give a review when I've read it.

Smile

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:00 pm

Whilst on the subject of novels, has anyone read the following ? -

Flight Of Colour.
by Adrian Greaves.

Horns Of The Buffalo.
by John Wilcox.

Also, with regards to novels based during the Anglo-Zulu War 1879, what kind of storylines would you like to see, set during Isandlwana and/or Rorke's Drift ?

Remember 'The War Horses' mentioned by Sheldon Hall, about a group of Boer horsemen who fought during the Indian Wars and in Africa ?

Or my suggestion of adventurers (Quatermain-types) getting caught up in the conflict.

Perhaps even ex-ACW soldiers finding their way there in time to join the invasion.

Coll

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:27 pm

Coll,

I've read Horns of the Buffalo it is not very good. I also read The Diamond Frontier by the same author, I found it even worst!

John Y.

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:46 pm

John

Another case of not judging a book by its cover ?

Annoying, isn't it, when the promises of a good illustration on the front cover is let down by its contents ?

I suppose a book has to stand out from others in the book store, to catch people's attention.

I'm at present reading one of Rider Haggard's books, so I think I'll stick with them.

Coll

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:46 am

I've just finished reading this, and so here goes with a review:

Well, it's a fairly good read in that it's simple, doesn't use complicated language and moves along fairly quickly. However, the plot's fairly weak, as it relies on A following B, which is followed by C etc..

The problem with this is that some of the links in the chain of events aren't explained very well, and you are required to accept the course of events with a large pinch of salt! I was disappointed to see that Saul includes several of the old theories, e.g. the shortage of ammunition - does he really beieve that this actually happened?

He also has a go at blackening the characters of several of the major players. Crealock is portrayed as a really nasty piece of work and, with Fynn, is shown as the major "villan", distorting the advice given to Lord Chelmsford to steer him into a course of action which would prove to be disastrous. It's claimed that he (they) did this to gain financially through the acquisition of a herd of white cows, which would have made them a fortune.

The film version of Hook takes a different turn here, with him being shown as a petty thief as, after the battle, he tries to steel a ring of Hart's finger, thinking that he was dead. After being stopped, Hook admits trying to do it, apologises, but is unrepentant at doing so as "A ring's no good to a dead man"!

After all that, did I enjoy the book? Well, yes, I did .... but it has several important faults, and must be read in this light, I think.

Marks out of 10 ...... four!

Smile

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 9:04 pm

OK, I confess. I saw a [very cheap] copy in Sussex Stationers (in Guildford)and bought it!

I've just finished a Wilbur Smith and Simon Scorrow - both great fun. I'll just take out my brain when reading..just what is required before sleep..

AMB

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 9:09 pm

It can't be as bad a Chambers' My Zulu Myself.....(it was a long time ago, but I do remember I actually quite enjoyed it, albeit brain was once again disengaged!)

AMB