Hell's Mile

by Terry Brighton

Tennyson called it the Valley of Death. The men of the Light Brigade called it Hell. It was a mile long. Hell's Mile . A narrative that moves with the pace of a cavalry charge. Battle scenes that echo with the clash of steel, and reek of powder smoke. And amid the beat of the hooves and the carnage of the guns, terrifying descriptions of the killing and the dying. Hell's Mile puts the reader in the saddle to ride into the Valley of Death with the Light Brigade During the Crimean War, while British and French armies clash with the Russians, Major Jack Blake of Her Majesty's Special Intelligence Department races to uncover a conspiracy that could defeat the Allies. Blake is an assassin, but has been promoted for it because he kills for Queen Victoria. While gentlemen officers abide by “proper conduct,” he operates on the dark side of war where everything is allowed. The climax of Blake's quest comes as he rides with the Light Brigade in the most horrific charge in military history. The brigade, armed with saber and lance, rode Hell's mile under the severest fire of round shot and shell from Russian cannons to the front and on both sides. In the slaughter that followed, many men fell. Those who survived took a terrible revenge on the enemy. Hell's Mile was launched at the National Army Museum, London . Some of the first to buy and read the book had this to Author's Warning Neither war nor the correct retelling of it is for the faint-hearted. In Hell's Mile , characters based on real men of the Light Brigade speak as soldiers spoke in 1854. There are multiple uses of the “F” word, and bawdy sexual references. Descriptions of the killing and dying are graphic and realistic, based on survivors' accounts and surgeons' reports. If you might find any of this offensive or upsetting, do not buy the book. Hell's Mile is the first novel of the Charge of the Light Brigade by an authority on the subject Terry Brighton was formerly museum curator of The Queen's Royal Lancers, descendant regiment of the 17th Lancers, which rode in the charge. His best-selling non-fiction account - Hell The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade - was based on survivors' accounts discovered in the regimental archives. After appearing on the Richard & Judy television chat show to promote Hell Riders , Terry was asked by Richard Madeley why no-one had written “the novel” - was it too big a subject? Terry promised to write it. Now in Hell's Mile , he gives the cavalrymen back their sabers and saddles, and sends them once more into the Valley of Death, reconstructing the charge with unprecedented graphic accuracy and vigor.

320 pages, Paperback

Published March 24, 2020

About the author

Terry Brighton is a British military historian and writer. His work is published in the U.K., the U.S., and in translation around the world.

In his controversial extended essay, The MAGA Offensive, published by Hard Corps Essays in September 2020, he argues that "the re-election of President Donald Trump is crucial for the survival of the real USA and the core values of Western culture."

He is best known for his research on the Charge of the Light Brigade, published in “Hell Riders: The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade.” But according to Publishers Weekly it was his work on three Second World War generals, “Patton, Montgomery, Rommel: Masters of War” that moved him “into the top rank of general audience military writers.”

His first novel, “Hell's Mile,” was published in 2020. According to the author, this makes good a promise he made to Richard Madeley on the British TV chat show Richard & Judy that he would “write the novel” of the Charge of the Light Brigade. “Hell’s Mile” is based on survivors’ graphic accounts and is not for the faint-hearted.

Terry Brighton has been an Anglican priest, chaplain to the SAS [British Special Forces], and curator of The Queen's Royal Lancers Regimental Museum. He lives in England with his wife, Linda, and their dog, Belle.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this novel and began reading it while reading the author's history book on the Charge of the Light Brigade for the 2nd time: Hell Riders. I don't think I've ever read a novelization of a piece of history by the same author before. I was very much expecting a history author to be a terrible novel writer, but I was pleasantly surprised. The history book, Hell Riders, is in my top 10 books of all time, and I am enjoying my second read-thru of it immensely, as the author essentially puts the actors in the historical events on trial to try to determine the why (and what if?) of how things transpired. Anyway, this novel, Hell's Mile, was a fun romp through the events described in the history book. I got the decided impression that the author was inserting himself into the narrative through the swashbuckling protagonist, Major Jack Blake, Her Majesty's chief spy and hit-man. Obviously, the Charge has involved so much of the author's career, and he is rightly understood to be the preeminent historian on those events, so it wasn't hard to imagine him thinking, what would I have done if I were Major Blake? How would I have dealt with these pompous fools charged with leading the cavalry in the Crimea? Well-done.