rorkesdriftvc.com Forum Index


rorkesdriftvc.com
Discussions related to the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
Reply to topic
Best "FICTION" books
Alekudemus


Joined: 15 Feb 2006
Posts: 147
Location: Monmouthshire/Gwent
Reply with quote
Hi all,
I have never read any works of fiction written about the Anglo Zulu war. Although some revisionist "Histories" come close.
Can you good people suggest anything decent?

Thanks in advance

Jon
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
John Young


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1020
Location: Lower Sheering, Essex
Reply with quote
Jon,

William Clive's novel The Tune That They Played is by far the best in my opinion.

John Y.
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
Martin Everett


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
Location: Brecon
Reply with quote
John,

There is a new book (I have not yet seen) - Company of Spears - Allan Mallinson (ex Lt Col 13/18th Hussars). The indications on Amazon website suggest that the storyline is associated with one of the earlier Frontier Wars.

_________________
Martin Everett
Brecon, Powys
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
Alekudemus


Joined: 15 Feb 2006
Posts: 147
Location: Monmouthshire/Gwent
Reply with quote
Thanks John and Martin. I've ordered the pair of them so hopefully they will be back in time for Easter.

Strange how so many ex-servicemen write good fiction. I like Ted allbeury who is ex Intelligence Corps. Apparently he was nearly always on the "Most borrowed" list from libraries and always received the maximum payment under the public lending right, on one occasion receiving a penny more than Barbara Cartland, a statistic in which he took great delight.
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
scarletto7


Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 91
Reply with quote
Got to agree with John on his choice, its a pleasant read, not heavy and with a new slant on people
View user's profileSend private message
Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
Reply with quote
Jon

Nickie McMenemy's Assegai (Macmillan, London 1973) is about a girl, Thola, and set in Shaka's time, the background deriving from the usual well known published works about that period in Zululand. I think I skimmed through it many years ago but can't remember much - I never have liked the idea of novels which include real people and events, if only because one then inevitably gets a fictionalised version of the various characters. Fictional characters based on what is plausible, even based on amalgams of real people, is a better idea I think.

I agree with John that The Tune that they Play is well-written in a fast, uncomplicated, informal style but for me the drawback is the same as in the above. Cy Endfield's novel, Zulu Dawn (Arrow Books, London 1979) on which the film was based, is very similar indeed in many ways to William Clive's little story, and I suppose was published at the same time as the ZD screenplay was written, although the film buffs will know more than me about that. For me, it disappoints for the same reason as above - it takes real people but creates fictional characters for them, although it does, of course, create some fictional (and plausible) people, which is much better I think. To be fair, I suppose one can't really create a fictional general or colonel, but some of ZD's characters and their utterances seem so far-fetched that, when repeated in the film, ended up way off mark. The end result was a film based on a novel, as opposed to to say, ZULU, which was based on a battle (with "novel type" characters like the Witts!)

Does anyone else have Cecil Cowley's KwaZulu (Cape Town, Struik 1966)? This is the story of the Zulu empire "as told" by Queen Mkabi, chief wife of Senzangakona, who is calculated to have lived for 100 years after her marriage and who is often reported (including in this book) to have committed suicide when witnessing the Zulu defeat at Ulundi in 1879. I mention it here because the story is told as she could have related it and would have known it, so it has to be "semi-fiction" if there is such a thing, but is nevertheless a fairly uncontroversial account, based as it is on most of the known secondary sources and on certain oral testimonies, although some aspects will obviously have been challenged. As "semi-fiction", it is certainly more reliable than, say, the TV series Shaka Zulu, which appears to rely much more on dramatic effect and a strange mixure of stories than on any historical base.

Victorian and Edwardian fiction on Zululand, especially involving the AZW and the civil war - usually through the eyes of farmers, traders and hunters - was prolific, as many adventure yarns for boys appeared in this genre. Haggard & Mitford for example. One of the examples of these I have is Hendricks the Hunter - or the Border Farm: A Tale of Zululand by WHG Kingston (Hodder & Stoughton, London 1908). Chapters such as "Caught by the Zulus" and "Escape from Cetchwayo" were obviously intended to appeal to the imagination of lads, and books like this were very popular as school prizes. More cerebral material (I'm not suggesting Haggard's books were non-cerebral!) is to be found, however, although muich of this takes you away from the AZW and Zululand generally.

Peter
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
a.j


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 80
Location: Thornaby-On-Tees, Great Britain
Reply with quote
John Wilcox wrote a good book called 'THE HORNS OF THE BUFFALO' about the period just before the war, the battle of Isandlwana and the battle of Rorke's Drift as seen through the eyes of a young British officer.

John Wilcox also wrote a sequel called 'THE ROAD TO KANDAHAR' about the same officer in the second Afghan War
View user's profileSend private message
Tom516


Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 136
Reply with quote
There's a book I read a lot when I was in elementary school, it was the story of a soldier of the 24th through Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift. It was written for young adults (I was in elementary from about 1987 to 1991), it was illustrated with black and white pictures and didn't mince words about the Zulu warriors disembowelling the white soldiers.

Can't remember the name though - but I remember the book!

Harlechman

_________________
Tom "Harlechman"
Zulu Total War Team,
a Rome TW: BI mod.
View user's profileSend private message
Best "FICTION" books
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
All times are GMT  
Page 1 of 1  

  
  
 Reply to topic