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Simon Fonthill #10
Bayonets Along the Border
North West India, July 1897.Former army scout Simon Fonthill and his wife Alice are travelling with their old friend Jenkins to India for an anniversary party with the Guides Corps. However, an ambush on their journey gives signs that the land may not be as peaceful as they had believed. On arrival at Marden their suspicions are founded when they are told of fresh trouble from the Pathans leading Simon and Jenkins join the charge to protect a nearby Fort. Any respite is short-lived and when Simon is tasked by Viceroy Elgin to deliver a very important letter, the group set out for the Khyber Pass. But danger dogs their steps and Simon must battle against time and incredible odds in this the most recent of his exploits.
263 pages, ebook
First published February 24, 2014
4 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
John Wilcox
19 books33 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Wilcox started out as a local reporter and journalist in Birmingham before spending many years in industry, which took him all round the world. He finally sold his company to devote himself to writing full-time. He lives in Salisbury.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Wilcox started out as a local reporter and journalist in Birmingham before spending many years in industry, which took him all round the world. He finally sold his company to devote himself to writing full-time. He lives in Salisbury.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 3, 2022
Read this book in 2014, and its the 8th volume, chronologically, of the exciting "Simon Fonthill" series.
This stale is set in July, AD 1897, and it starts off in North West India where Simon Fonthill, his wife Alice, and their old friend Jenkins are travelling towards an anniversary party of the Guides Corps, when they are ambushed and finding out that the land is not as peaceful as believed.
But they make it to Marden, and arriving there they are told of the uprising of the Pathans, and wich will lead for Fonthill and Jenkins to join the defence of a nearby fort.
They can only shortly enjoy their stay at Marden, for the Viceroy Elgin has an important letter that needs to be delivered to the Amir in Kabul, and they, Fonthill and Jenkins, will set off with Alice in their midst, for she will accompany them as far as Fort Landi Kotal in the Khyber Pass.
With Fonthill in Kabul, Afghanistan, his wife Alice will be kidnapped by the Mullah leading the revolt, and together they will speed up towards that place of danger in a desperate attempt to try to free Alice from this madman and his horde.
What is to follow is an exciting and entertaining military adventure, in which Fonthill and Jenkins must do their utmost and face grave danger in their attempt to rescue Alice from her dangerous ordeal, and all this is brought to us in a very believable and remarkable fashion by the author.
Very much recommended, for this is another splendid addition to this excellent series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Fascinating India/Afghanistan Adventure"!
This stale is set in July, AD 1897, and it starts off in North West India where Simon Fonthill, his wife Alice, and their old friend Jenkins are travelling towards an anniversary party of the Guides Corps, when they are ambushed and finding out that the land is not as peaceful as believed.
But they make it to Marden, and arriving there they are told of the uprising of the Pathans, and wich will lead for Fonthill and Jenkins to join the defence of a nearby fort.
They can only shortly enjoy their stay at Marden, for the Viceroy Elgin has an important letter that needs to be delivered to the Amir in Kabul, and they, Fonthill and Jenkins, will set off with Alice in their midst, for she will accompany them as far as Fort Landi Kotal in the Khyber Pass.
With Fonthill in Kabul, Afghanistan, his wife Alice will be kidnapped by the Mullah leading the revolt, and together they will speed up towards that place of danger in a desperate attempt to try to free Alice from this madman and his horde.
What is to follow is an exciting and entertaining military adventure, in which Fonthill and Jenkins must do their utmost and face grave danger in their attempt to rescue Alice from her dangerous ordeal, and all this is brought to us in a very believable and remarkable fashion by the author.
Very much recommended, for this is another splendid addition to this excellent series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Fascinating India/Afghanistan Adventure"!
June 27, 2015
I'd not read anything by this author prior to this book although a couple of his novels sit on my to be read shelves, so didn't really know what to expect. Nor do I normally read historical fiction set in this time period, but I quite enjoyed this book. I never quite came to care for the two main characters in the book as I do Cato and Macro in the Simon Scarrow books for example, but they might grow on me. I'm certainly going to try at least one more of his books.
June 24, 2022
This book descirbes Winston Churchill's first experience of actual combat attack on Malakand and Piper Findlater's been shot in two ancles. These battles of secend half of XIX centaury was tough for british and that way thay strengthened for age of World Wars. It was also time of decadency in literature and people from then got sronger in emraising hell and chaos that was domein of bandids and thieves, leading into Rewolutions and end of Classicla world reality. Only though nowadays people like me try to live by classicla standards.
In a study of the vitality of Islam in late-nineteenth-century north India, Barbara Metcalf explains the response of Islamic religious scholars ('ulama) to the colonial dominance of the British and the collapse of Muslim political power. Originally published in 1982.
By 1856, the company employed 300,000 native Indian troops. Most were infantrymen called sepoys. Three-fourths of the sepoys were Hindus, and the rest were Muslims. The company hired British officers and soldiers to command the sepoy regiments. Therefore thay fought Jihadists.
'During the attack on the Dargai Heights on 20 October 1897, Piper Findlater, after being shot through both feet and unable to stand, sat up, under heavy fire, playing the Regimental March to encourage the charge of the Gordon Highlanders. '
Findlater claimed that he did not hear the order to play Cock o' the North which is a marching tune. He chose to play a quick strathspey, The Haughs of Cromdales which he thought more suitable. He felt sick with pain after he was shot but managed to play on for another five minutes.
On August 23rd, 1897, the warlike tribe of the Afridis attacked Ali Musjid and Fort Maude. In October a British force was despatched to punish them by invading Tirah, their summer home, and on the 20th of the month occurred the fight on the Dargai Heights, where the enemy had taken up a strong position.
The two forts in the rugged North West Frontier Province (NWFP), now in Pakistan, were built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh but renamed by the British. Saragarhi helped to link up the two important forts which housed a large number of British troops in the rugged terrain of NWFP.
An estimated 12,000 – 24,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen were seen near Gogra, at Samana Suk, and around Saragarhi, cutting off Fort Gulistan from Fort Lockhart.
The Indian Army's 4th battalion of the Sikh Regiment commemorates the battle every year on 12 September, as Saragarhi Day.
---
The siege of Malakand was the 26 July – 2 August 1897 siege of the British garrison in the Malakand region of colonial British India's North West Frontier.
As the night wore on, reinforcements arrived from a nearby British hill fort which had as yet been ignored by the Pashtun forces. At 4:15 pm, the attacking forces withdrew with their dead and wounded. The British had lost a large number of officers wounded, and recorded 21 deaths amongst the sepoys.
Sepoys were Indian soldiers employed within European military garrisons to provide the much-needed manpower for the defence of European colonies in Asia. The term “sepoy” is derived from the Persian word sipahi, which had been translated into the Urdu and Hindi languages as a generic term for soldier.
In a study of the vitality of Islam in late-nineteenth-century north India, Barbara Metcalf explains the response of Islamic religious scholars ('ulama) to the colonial dominance of the British and the collapse of Muslim political power. Originally published in 1982.
By 1856, the company employed 300,000 native Indian troops. Most were infantrymen called sepoys. Three-fourths of the sepoys were Hindus, and the rest were Muslims. The company hired British officers and soldiers to command the sepoy regiments. Therefore thay fought Jihadists.
'During the attack on the Dargai Heights on 20 October 1897, Piper Findlater, after being shot through both feet and unable to stand, sat up, under heavy fire, playing the Regimental March to encourage the charge of the Gordon Highlanders. '
Findlater claimed that he did not hear the order to play Cock o' the North which is a marching tune. He chose to play a quick strathspey, The Haughs of Cromdales which he thought more suitable. He felt sick with pain after he was shot but managed to play on for another five minutes.
On August 23rd, 1897, the warlike tribe of the Afridis attacked Ali Musjid and Fort Maude. In October a British force was despatched to punish them by invading Tirah, their summer home, and on the 20th of the month occurred the fight on the Dargai Heights, where the enemy had taken up a strong position.
The two forts in the rugged North West Frontier Province (NWFP), now in Pakistan, were built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh but renamed by the British. Saragarhi helped to link up the two important forts which housed a large number of British troops in the rugged terrain of NWFP.
An estimated 12,000 – 24,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen were seen near Gogra, at Samana Suk, and around Saragarhi, cutting off Fort Gulistan from Fort Lockhart.
The Indian Army's 4th battalion of the Sikh Regiment commemorates the battle every year on 12 September, as Saragarhi Day.
---
The siege of Malakand was the 26 July – 2 August 1897 siege of the British garrison in the Malakand region of colonial British India's North West Frontier.
As the night wore on, reinforcements arrived from a nearby British hill fort which had as yet been ignored by the Pashtun forces. At 4:15 pm, the attacking forces withdrew with their dead and wounded. The British had lost a large number of officers wounded, and recorded 21 deaths amongst the sepoys.
Sepoys were Indian soldiers employed within European military garrisons to provide the much-needed manpower for the defence of European colonies in Asia. The term “sepoy” is derived from the Persian word sipahi, which had been translated into the Urdu and Hindi languages as a generic term for soldier.
December 9, 2017
Whenever I read a Simon Fonthill adventure, I'm thoroughly entertained...but I also learn a little about one of the 'little wars' that occupied Great Britain in the decades between the Zulu and Boer Wars. 'Bayonets Along the Border' is one of the best Fonthill adventures yet, with our hero, joined by wife Alice and his former batman '352' Jenkins get mixed up in the fighting in North-West India in 1897. A great read!
July 30, 2018
Delightfully entertaining and informative war history book about the Afgan-Indian border wars in the late 1890s-and early 1900s. The three main British characters are inventive, curious, and sporting in their approach to the hostile situations they encounter. I loved the way the spoke to each other. It was humorous and yet endearing.
John Wilcox brought a bit of lost history into an extremely readable format to help educate the masses of us who would have never read about it. Thank you!
John Wilcox brought a bit of lost history into an extremely readable format to help educate the masses of us who would have never read about it. Thank you!
September 12, 2019
Another great Fonthill and 352 adventure.
May 20, 2024
A good entry in the series, although for some reason Wilcox keeps writing Alice as more and more of a horny nympho ready to sleep with anyone near her.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews