The fascination of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 continues unabated. It was impassioned almost forty years ago by the film Zulu, starring Stanley Baker and, a yet to be discovered star, Michael Caine. Zulu has been shown and continues to be shown on British television more than any other feature film. In the USA and elsewhere it has become a cult movie. Moreover, Zulu created a near-avalanche of books, articles, lectures, documentaries and web sites that has come close to being an industry. But the basis of all this activity was, in fact, generated 120 years ago by the weekly magazines of Victorian England such as the Illustrated London News.
Every Saturday morning, at the cost of six pence, the Illustrated London News presented to its readers descriptions of events and bloody battles brought alive by the magnificent illustrations drawn by the top war artists of the day.
Although copies of the original magazines are much sought after and have become collectors items, the compilers have painstakingly acquired every issue pertaining to the conflict and, having extracted every report and illustration on the subject, have produced, with an index, and in chronological order, a unique record of the Anglo-Zulu War. Albeit through the eyes of a Colonial Victorian Age.
This compilation of the Illustrated London News, with a foreword by David Rattray of Fugitives Drift, containing over 300 pages, 200 dramatic black and white illustrations, has been compiled by Ron Lock and Peter Quantrill, co-authors of acclaimed .
Ron Lock has spent much of his life in Africa, including thirteen years in Kenya and Tanganyika. He served in the Mounted Troop of the Royal Military Police and the Rift Valley Troop of the Kenya Police. He is the author of Blood on the Painted Mountain Hlobane and liambula, 1879 (Greenhill Books) and numerous articles on military history which have been published in the UK and USA. tie is also a registered guide to Anglo-Zulu and Boer War battlefields.
Peter Quantrill was born in Simla, India, where he spent much of his youth. tie was commissioned from Sandhurst into the 1st Battalion 7th Duke of Edinburghs Own Gurkha Rifles (now 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles). He served in India, Nepal, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Borneo before settling with his family in South Africa. A keen student of military history, his special interest lies in the Anglo-Zulu War.
