Khartoum - The Ultimate Imperial Adventure - Michael Asher.
I have only finished the Prologue and Chapter one....no sign of Gordon yet. One British officer with a 15000 strong Egyptian army are massacred. Another British officer is sent from Egypt to port Suakin and decides to take a command of 3200 Egyptians and allies with some European officers into the wild interior of eastern Sudan and is brutally hacked up and then a besieged town of 700 Egyptian soldiers decide to make a break for it to Port Suakin and are ambushed and massacred.
If I was Gordon - I would have declined the appointment ; he may have skipped reading the first chapter. I already came across him in the Siege at Peking book where in the 1860's he did a better job than all 7 great powers together in 1900 ; hence the nickname - " Chinese Gordon ".
( I wonder if any of these authors have pointed out or triangulated the absurd link that in China he had to fight against a Chinese guy who believed himself to be the brother of Jesus and later had to deal with a Mahdi who believed himself to be the Chosen one - the awaited one and his host of Mahdist Menshiviks.
" What What What !...........What bad luck. ! "..........).
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Good writing style and full of detail...............................a rip roaring adventure...........
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could be done solely on the 32 French and 5 Italian sailors who defended the Petiang Cathedral from the bloodthirsty Boxer hordes. ( the pic is probably 99% it ). Makes the Siege of the legations in Peking look like a picnic..............the Japanese liberated the Cathedral to the chagrin of the moustache twirlers.
